Express & Star

VIDEO 'I'll be a voice for the West Midlands' - Black Country MP launches deputy leadership bid

"I've spent a lot of time sleeping next to Lenny Henry in the last few months."

Published

Tom Watson's use of Premier Inn hotels on the campaign trail has culminated with him opening his office above one in the centre of West Bromwich.

The MP is running for the deputy leadership of Labour. And if the fact that he got the largest number of nominations from fellow MPs is anything to go by, he is the front runner.

Overlooking the town and, the office is currently bare but a couple of aides, including Mr Watson's brother Dan, are unpacking cheap pay as you go Nokia mobiles.

The 10th floor of the Premier Inn, formerly the Howard Johnson hotel, will become a hive of activity with volunteers and six paid staff on the phones, building support.

"I've been in about 40 Premier Inns," says Mr Watson. "Now I'm on a national tour to talk to Labour party members and supporters.

"I should advertise Premier Inn beds. There's something special about them. I've never had as good a night's sleep as I have had in a Premier Inn.

"I might just move on to the seventh floor and live there for the next month."

Geographically it makes sense to run a national campaign from the heart of England, where the whole country is in easy reach, particularly Labour's northern heartland.

Tom Watson

"For me being a West Midlands MP and deputy leader would be the proudest thing I could think of. The last person from this region to stand in a leadership election was Roy Hattersley. That's quite a long time ago. For me having a voice at the top table means I could speak up for this region, for modern manufacturing, for modern skills to give proper apprenticeships, standing up for a regional transport system that needs renewal."

Roy Hattersley, incidentally, was deputy leader from 1983 to 1992 and represented Sparkbrook in Birmingham.

"Labour needs to listen to communities and respond to their concerns," Mr Watson says.

Is that why Ed Miliband lost the election? Did Labour stop listening?

Mr Watson does not think so. But he does want to know why there were five million fewer Labour voters in May than in 2005, the last time Tony Blair won a majority.

"UKIP is of particular interest to me," says Mr Watson. "I met people who were lifelong Labour voters who were going to vote UKIP for the first time and very often they were voting against their own personal interest.

"Nigel Farage is a classic liberal economist. He believes in a smaller state, he believes in fewer public services provided by local government, he thinks markets should decide people's fates and it's not the job of politicians to provide opportunity and protection to people who need support.

"I was talking to people who even understood that and were voting against their direct interest because of that. Labour, with all humility, has to hear what they have to say."

He has not endorsed a leadership candidate. But if he wins the deputy's role and shadow health secretary Andy Burnham becomes leader, the Tories will make a lot of their links with the trade unions.

Mr Watson used to share a house in London with Unite general secretary Len McCluskey. The Tories would paint them 'Len's Boys'.

Mr Watson says: "I'm a very proud trade unionist. I consider myself a trade unionist MP. But Tony Blair was right. The relationship with the trade unions should be based on fairness, not favours.The idea that the party is run by the unions is one of those myths we need to dispel. Our members decide what our policy is, not a union general secretary."

It is interesting to hear him refer to Mr Blair.

In 2006 Mr Watson resigned as a junior defence minister for leading what became known as the 'curry house plot'. He and fellow MP Sion Simon had a curry at Bilash in Wolverhampton before a letter signed by Labour MPs was sent urging Mr Blair to quit as Prime Minister. They say they never discussed the letter at Bilash, but the name stuck.

He also resigned as a minister under Gordon Brown in 2009. At the time his name was being wrongly linked to a plot to smear Tory MPs. The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch, was particularly aggressive, with its then editor Rebekah Brooks said to have never forgiven him what he did to 'her Tony'. He describes that period as the worst in his life and he nearly left politics altogether.

In opposition he was made deputy chairman of Labour, in charge of campaigning. He left that role in 2013.

How can we be sure he won't stand down again?

"The reasons you leave office are very different," he says. "I'm a strong campaigner. This is the job I've always wanted, to marshal resources for a cause I believe in, that's part of me. I'm in this for the long haul."

He is taking seriously the issues raised with him in the West Midlands and believes they can help shape the Labour party in the future.

"A small business owner said he can't get a mortgage because of cash flow but he has four people working for him who have mortgages because they have income," he says.

"We could remedy that. He could be a Labour voter if he got something to help with that.

"People agreed with us on global corporations but there were small business owners who heard a different message. They were hearing how we weren't for them. We were for them but we need to work with them.

"I meet a lot of people in West Bromwich who have a different sense of themselves because the economy changed. Thirty years ago they might have been the warehouse manager in a big company but now they run their own courier or digital distribution firm. Or they might have been a catering manager in a large company but now they run their own catering business. And they're still powerless in the market. They were still very vulnerable when banks closed down lines of credit in 2008 and were the first to lose their livelihoods.

"But they have a different sense of themselves and they want Labour to understand that. That's not a left or right wing analysis.

"We still have family firms, small engineering firms that are close knit communities in themselves and they need Labour on their side."

Mr Watson is up against Caroline Flint, Stella Creasy, Angela Eagle and Ben Bradshaw for the role of deputy leader.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.