Tag: Tom Watson (golfer)

Formby accused Watson of “completely unacceptable” behaviour after he asked for antisemitism complaints to be forwarded to him. They said that during and soon after the period in question, Formby overhauled the process she inherited, to cut out the leader’s office and her team. In response, Murray called for an investigation without a suspension. “I was asked by party staff a year ago to give advice on 13 individual cases relating to alleged antisemitism, to assist in getting through the backlog,” he said. In April, Formby’s official opposed a recommendation to suspend a member who claimed that a Labour Jewish group had links to the Freemasons, instead backing an investigation with no suspension. Play Video 0:41 In another April case, a recommendation to suspend a member who had already been given a warning was opposed by Formby’s official, who instead backed an investigation. In each of the cases, Labour staff dropped their recommendation in favour of the action backed by the official or, in the mural case, Murray. The Observer has also seen cases in which the pair agreed with the recommendation from Labour staff. Members can be suspended while further investigations are carried out. Staff in the investigations team have always led on investigations and recommendations on individual cases.

A Labour activist who has waited almost 16 months for her complaint of sexual harassment against an MP to be resolved has called on the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, to take charge of more abuse complaints. In a letter to the deputy leader, shared with the Guardian, she said Watson should take charge of monitoring the process in the same way he has pledged to with complaints about antisemitism and bullying. “I, like many survivors of sexual harassment and assault, would like you to take the same measures to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct within the Labour party,” Etemadzadeh wrote to Watson. Etemadzadeh, who first made her complaint about Hopkins in November 2017, is scheduled to have it heard by the party’s highest disciplinary body in late April but said she had lost faith in the process. She has previously accused Hopkins of sending her a text saying young men would be “lucky to have you as a girlfriend and a lover” and has accused him of rubbing his crotch against her during an embrace at an event in 2014. Hopkins has said he “absolutely and categorically” denies any inappropriate conduct. Etemadzadeh said the handling of her case “shares many of the same flaws as its handling of allegations of antisemitism” and particularly criticised the makeup of the elected disciplinary body, the national constitutional committee, which she said was elected according to “factional politics”. Etemadzadeh said she had found herself in the position similar to those who had made complaints about antisemitism. “It is complainants, rather than perpetrators, who are accused of exercising a malign power and bringing the party into disrepute,” she said. Etemadzadeh also asked Watson to advocate for the release of a June 2018 report by Karon Monaghan QC on reforming the party’s complaints procedure, which she said she had contributed to but had not been allowed to read.

Newport West Labour Party confirmed in a tweet that Mr Flynn died on Sunday, saying he was "a hero to many of us". He was an independent thinker who was a credit to the Labour Party. He campaigned on a wide-range of issues, including benefits, animal welfare and devolution. "He was an independent thinker who was a credit to the Labour Party. Mr Corbyn's deputy, Tom Watson, said Mr Flynn was "one of the great characters in politics" adding he was "loved and revered by many", Report Jayne Bryant, the Welsh assembly member for Mr Flynn's constituency, first met the MP when she was nine years old. She told BBC Radio Wales: "He absolutely loved Newport. "He really, really cared for people and I think that sometimes gets lost in politics." Conservative Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said Mr Flynn was an "exceptional constituency MP", and said it was a "privilege to work with him". 'Fascinating' "We've lost someone who put his values and his beliefs at the heart of everything he said and did," wrote Blaenau Gwent AM Alun Davies. Jo Stevens, the Cardiff Central MP, said Mr Flynn was a "kind, principled, fascinating man who was devoted to his constituents".

Such a deal would leave Britain free to diverge from EU rules and regulations but that in turn would lead to border checks and the rise of other “non-tariff barriers” to trade. Seven in 10 Labour-held constituencies voted to leave the EU and a recent meeting of the parliamentary Labour party was dominated by a bitter row over the single market, with MPs in pro-Brexit seats warning that supporting it would damage their electoral chances. However, the research suggested there were “only a handful” of seats where more Labour voters backed leave than remain, and that many of these would support the party at a general election irrespective of its position on Brexit. Corbyn under pressure to give members vote on Labour Brexit policy Read more Trickett’s Hemsworth seat in West Yorkshire voted by 68.1% to leave the EU at the 2016 referendum. However, the YouGov data shows that of those who voted in the 2017 election, 11,037 were Labour remainers, greater than the shadow cabinet minister’s 10,174 majority. More Labour voters in the constituency backed remain than leave. Lavery’s Wansbeck constituency in Northumberland backed Brexit with a 56.2% vote, yet the Labour remain tally was 12,392, greater than the Labour party chairman’s 10,435 majority. In 2017, 51% of Labour voters in the election had backed remain at the referendum, while 32% supported leave. The Tory remain vote there stood at 5,444 in 2017. It showed that Theresa May has the second highest Tory remain vote in the country in Maidenhead, with 14,452 of her backers also voting to stay in the EU.

Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, has said that his weight loss has led him to realise Britain must do more to tackle obesity. Watson, 51, who has lost more than six stone on a nutritional regime that involves putting butter in his coffee, said he was motivated to take better care of his health after reading about Labour politicians who died early. The West Bromwich East MP, first elected in 2001, said he was the thinnest he had been since entering the Commons. Watson told ITV’s Peston On Sunday: “I basically stopped taking sugar, refined sugar, and then I started walking 10,000 steps a day and walking up staircases and when a bit more weight came off I started to jog and cycle. “I kept reading about Labour politicians that died early in their 50s and 60s and I want to get healthy, and actually for me the journey’s been very interesting because what I realise is there’s a lot more we can do in public health to deal with the obesity crisis, because you know we’ve got 10 million of these people heading to diabetes, another 15 million sitting behind them are overweight. “When you read in the papers or you hear political speeches it’s like we condemn them and we judge people who are overweight and I think this is a nutritional issue that retailers, manufacturers, public health officials and politicians have got to take seriously.” He said one part of his new regime was “bulletproof coffee”, usually made using butter, which is “a way of getting saturated fats into your diet which means you’re not as hungry during the day”.