Tom Watson, Baron Watson of Wyre Forest
Former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, UK Music Chair / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Thomas Anthony Watson, Baron Watson of Wyre Forest (born 8 January 1967) is a British politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2019. A member of the House of Lords since 2022, he was the member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich East from 2001 to 2019.
The Lord Watson of Wyre Forest | |||||||||||||||
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Deputy Leader of the Labour Party | |||||||||||||||
In office 12 September 2015 – 12 December 2019 | |||||||||||||||
Leader | Jeremy Corbyn | ||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Harriet Harman | ||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Angela Rayner | ||||||||||||||
Minister of State for Digital Engagement and Civil Service Issues | |||||||||||||||
In office 25 January 2008 – 5 June 2009 | |||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | Gordon Brown | ||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Gillian Merron | ||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Dawn Butler | ||||||||||||||
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans | |||||||||||||||
In office 5 May 2006 – 6 September 2006 | |||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Don Touhig | ||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Derek Twigg | ||||||||||||||
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |||||||||||||||
Assumed office 21 November 2022 | |||||||||||||||
Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East | |||||||||||||||
In office 7 June 2001 – 6 November 2019 | |||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Peter Snape | ||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Nicola Richards | ||||||||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||||||||
Born | Thomas Anthony Watson (1967-01-08) 8 January 1967 (age 57) Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | ||||||||||||||
Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||
Spouse |
Siobhan Corby
(m. 2000; sep. 2012) | ||||||||||||||
Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||
Alma mater | University of Hull | ||||||||||||||
Signature | |||||||||||||||
Born in Sheffield, Watson was raised in Kidderminster, where he was educated at King Charles I School. He first became involved in Labour Party and trade-union activism while studying at the University of Hull and was chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students from 1992 to 1993. After working in marketing and advertising, he began working full-time for the Labour Party, including on its 1997 general election campaign, and then for the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union.
Elected MP for West Bromwich East at the 2001 general election, Watson was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans from May to September 2006 and Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2008 to 2009. In October 2011, Ed Miliband appointed him as the Labour Party's national campaign coordinator and deputy chair. He resigned from both roles in July 2013, following a controversy over the selection of a new parliamentary candidate for Falkirk.
On 12 September 2015, Watson was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party alongside the new leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Following the conviction of Carl Beech in July 2019 for making false allegations of paedophilia, Watson was criticised by high-profile victims and their relatives for his role in the affair, known as Operation Midland. Watson stood down as an MP in November 2019 and as deputy leader of the Labour Party in 2019, stating that his reasons for doing so were "personal, not political". He later admitted that he had voted for Owen Smith in the 2016 leadership election. In March 2020, he was appointed chair of UK Music and later that year was made a senior adviser on problem gambling to Flutter Entertainment.