ANDREW PIERCE: Tom Watson, our new Lord of Hypocrisy

ANDREW PIERCE: 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 No 10’. 

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’.

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

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’!

Is a hard rain gonna fall on Bob?

Is Bob Dylan the next cultural icon set to be cancelled?

In his new book of essays on popular song, the Bard of Minnesota describes women variously as ‘pug-nosed, grim-faced and short on looks’, a ‘she-goat,’ a ‘crazy b****,’ a ‘gold-digging showgirl, full-skirted in a cocktail dress’ and a ‘hot-blooded sex-starved wench’. 

Don’t expect a Commons invite from doughty anti-sexism campaigner Harriet Harman any time soon, Bob! 

Is Bob Dylan the next cultural icon set to be cancelled?

Ever-pious Sir Keir Starmer boasts that not only will he refuse to go to Qatar to attend the World Cup, he has also banned his shadow cabinet from attending due to the Middle Eastern nation’s stance on human rights. 

But Labour’s Mark Drakeford, the Welsh First Minister, doesn’t seem to have got the memo. 

Not only is he going to Qatar to support Wales, who have made it to the tournament, several of his Cabinet are joining him. 

What will Starmer do about all this? Nothing, of course. Talk about an own goal. 

Moments after announcing Rishi Sunak’s arrival in Downing Street last Monday, BBC newsman Ben Brown found himself stuck in a work lift. 

He endured Radio 1’s piped pop music for three hours when the engineer was held up in traffic. 

In his first outing at Prime Minister’s questions, Rishi Sunak talked tough on immigration. 

He’s been getting advice from Alexander Downer, one-time foreign minister in John Howard’s Australian government, which notoriously turned away inbound migrant boats. 

Downer revealed that Sunak approached him for advice on immigration during the first leadership contest. 

He tells me: ‘What Sunak has to do is to just be completely straight with the public and don’t try to seduce them with false promises.’ 

Rishi’s grim expression outside No 10 suggests he’s listening. 

In his first outing at Prime Minister’s questions, Rishi Sunak talked tough on immigration (pictured on October 26)

Liz Truss will always be the answer to the pub quiz question: ‘Who was Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister?’ 

But that’s not her only claim to fame. 

Though she clocked up just 44 days in office, Truss is also the only prime minister since Churchill whose premiership spanned two monarchs: the late Queen and Charles III to Sir Winston’s George VI and Elizabeth II. 

Matt sees a comeback chance 

It seems that irrepressible ex-health secretary Matt Hancock is contemplating yet another way to rehabilitate his shaky reputation.

Hancock, who quit the Cabinet in disgrace after photographs emerged of him breaking his own lockdown rules while enjoying a steamy clinch with his married lover Gina Coladangelo, is running to be chairman of the Commons treasury select committee.

His Treasury pedigree? He was shadow chancellor George Osborne’s chief of staff 14 years ago when the Tories were still in Opposition. He’s got no chance — but you can’t fault his ambition.

It seems that irrepressible ex-health secretary Matt Hancock is contemplating yet another way to rehabilitate his shaky reputation (pictured on October 24)

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