CORBYN’S TOP JOB FOR LORD FIREBUG
Scots peer jailed for starting blaze in hotel handed shadow ministerial role
A SCOTS peer jailed for fire raising was yesterday awarded a plum job in Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench team. The disgraced Baron Watson of Invergowrie was jailed for 16 months after starting a blaze at an Edinburgh hotel, following a drunken binge at a political awards ceremony.
But he will now be Labour’s education spokesman in the House of Lords, only three years after being readmitted to the party.
Bizarrely, as education is devolved to Holyrood, he will be a Scottish politician speaking on matters that only affect England – in a sign of Mr Corbyn’s desperation to find
Turn to Page 4
Labour parliamentarians prepared to work with him.
John McTernan, Tony Blair’s former political secretary, said last night: ‘Given his past, Mike Watson is a very odd choice for a junior education spokesman.
‘I didn’t even know he’d been let back into the Labour Party. Appointing a convicted arsonist as a spokesman on anything beggars belief.’
Political opponents were also stunned by the appointment.
A Lib Dem spokesman said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn has appointed a shadow chancellor [John McDonnell] who wants to overthrow capitalism and now an education spokesman best known for drunken fire raising. I am sure many Labour MPs and MSPs will be in despair at this latest announcement.
‘Mr Corbyn has already had his fingers burned with John McDonnell. He seems to have learned nothing from the experience.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘This is a bizarre appointment. It reflects how Jeremy Corbyn seems to be scram-
‘Labour MPs and MSPs in despair’
bling around for people to work with, which is further proof of the deep divisions within the Labour Party.’
Nationalist MSP Mark McDonald said: ‘The appointment of disgraced former MSP Mike Watson to Labour’s shadow team is an ingenious way to win back support north of the Border.’
But Mr Corbyn’s team last night defended the appointment.
‘He has spent his penalty and we are in favour of rehabilitation,’ a spokesman said. ‘There’s a view that he should be given an opportunity and he would be very good at it.’
Lord Watson was elected to Holyrood in 1999, representing Glasgow Cathcart.
Under First Minister Jack McConnell, he became Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister and introduced the Bill that led to the ban on fox-hunting.
But his political career came crashing down after he admitted deliberately setting fire to a curtain after a drinking session at the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards in November 2004. He initially denied the charge but CCTV footage showed him crouching at the base of the curtain minutes before it was engulfed in flames at Edinburgh’s five- star Prestonfield House Hotel.
He admitted a charge of wilful fire raising at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and was sentenced to 16 months. He was released after serving half.
The court heard Lord Watson was drunk but Sheriff Kathrine Mackie said this did not excuse his behaviour. She added: ‘Someone in public office ought to know how to conduct himself on all occasions.
‘Fire raising is a most serious crime. By pleading guilty you have acknowledged that you intended to set on fire property at Prestonfield House Hotel, whereby property was damaged and lives endangered’.
A pre-sentence report said he presented a ‘significant risk of reoffending’ which made a jail sentence appropriate.
Lord Watson resigned from the Scottish parliament and also as a director of Dundee United. He was suspended from the Labour Party for seven years but reinstated in 2012.
Despite his conviction he kept his life peerage and sat as an i ndependent before being readmitted to Labour.
A prolific expenses claimer, he was estimated in 2012 to have cost £10,000 for every time he had spoken in the House of Lords – speaking only five times in a year but claiming £48,000 in expenses. Now 66, he receives a £15,000 pension from Holyrood.
He will serve as a member of the team under shadow education secretary Lucy Powell.