Black Country Labour MP Tom Watson has become a household name after taking on Rupert Murdoch and News International. But he told Political Editor Jonathan Walker that there was much more work to do to clean up the news industry
Revellers at Liverpool’s Olympia theatre enjoyed a night of music with stars Mick Jones of the Clash, Pete Wylie and The Farm – as well as Black Country MP Tom Watson, at a concert held alongside Labour’s annual conference.
The MP hit the stage next to some of his musical heroes, as part of his long-running campaign to expose wrongdoing in the newspaper industry.
Mr Watson (Lab West Bromwich East) is used to appearing on television, and was a regular visitor to Number 10 when his friend Gordon Brown was Prime Minister.
But catching up with him during the Labour conference in Liverpool, a few days after the concert, he was buzzing with excitement.
“They actually had a poster with Mick Jones’ name on it and mine too,” he said.
Mr Watson may not be quite as famous as the pop stars he shared the bill with, but his campaign to expose phone hacking and other wrongdoing at the Sun’s sister paper, the News of the World, has made him something of a household name – and certainly one of the darlings of the Labour Party.
By helping to reveal that News of the World journalists hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, he became instrumental in seeing a newspaper closed down.
But as the theme of the concert suggests – it was to raise awareness for the “Don’t Buy the Sun” campaign – his crusade against News International and the men in charge, Rupert and James Murdoch, is far from over.
Mr Watson also delivered a passionate speech at the conference, imploring delegates to take revenge on the Sun newspaper, which printed lies about the behaviour of Liverpool fans following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, and its publisher, News International.Speaking to the Birmingham Post, Mr Watson said he wanted broadcasting watchdog Ofcom to consider whether Rupert Murdoch was a “fit and proper person” to own the 33 per cent of BSkyB he currently has.
And he pointed out that the Murdochs faced two important annual general meetings in the coming months, when shareholders could potentially strip them of control of their businesses.
Mr Watson said he welcomed the Government’s decision to appoint judge Lord Justice Leveson to lead an inquiry into phone hacking, but insisted Ministers should not wait for the inquiry to report its findings before taking action.
He said: “I’m slightly concerned that David Cameron said we need to wait for Leveson to report before we can have legislative change.
“And I’m not sure if that’s enough. Firstly, because the scale of the challenge for Leveson is so great that it’s almost impossible for him to report back within a year as he was asked to.
