Tom Watson, our new Lord of Hypocrisy

IN THE latest instalment of his largely unreadable weekly blog, Labour’s new peer Tom Watson makes a dignified plea to sir Keir starmer and rishi sunak.

‘Manners and kindness still matter in politics,’ declares his oh-so noble lordship to his party leader and the pM.

The sentiment, if trite, is hard to fault. But Watson’s brazen hypocrisy staggers me. in 2012, as deputy Labour leader, he hysterically told the Commons there was ‘clear intelligence’ suggesting the existence of ‘a powerful paedophile network linked to parliament and No10’. only days after the death of the Tory ex-Cabinet minister Leon Brittan — by then unable to defend himself in court — Watson sneered that Brittan ‘stands accused of multiple child rape’ and was ‘as close to evil as any human being could get’.

These vicious and untrue allegations about an outstanding public servant, which caused immense harm to Lady Brittan, were based, of course, on the ravings of the paedophile fantasist Carl Beech, rightly jailed in 2019 for 18 years on multiple counts of perverting the course of justice.

Watson’s apology to Lady Brittan was belated and grudging. so much for ‘manners and kindness’!