Peter Watt
Peter Watt | |
|---|---|
| General Secretary of the Labour Party | |
| In office January 2006 – November 2007 | |
| Leader | |
| Preceded by | Matt Carter |
| Succeeded by | Ray Collins |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 20 July 1969 York,England |
| Political party | Labour |
Peter Martin Watt(born 20 July 1969)[1]was theGeneral Secretary of the Labour Partyin the United Kingdom from January 2006 until he resigned in November 2007 as a result of theDonorgateaffair. Watt was then a member of theNational Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children(NSPCC) Executive Board. He is now working for Hammersmith council directing all services relating to children.
Early and family life
[edit]From 1989 to 1992 Watt trained as a nurse at a predecessor institution toBournemouth University,then worked forPoole HospitalNHS Trust.[1][2]
He is married and, as of 2007, the father of three children as well as a foster carer.[3]
Labour Party
[edit]From 1996 he worked for theLabour Party,first as a local organiser forBatterseaandWandsworth,then in Labour Party head office on election delivery and recruitment and then as Regional Director of theEastern region.In 2004 he gained aProfessional Certificate in Managementfrom theOpen University.[1]
He returned to the Labour Party head office asDirector of Finance and Compliancein 2005, a role that bridges legal and financial party issues and also usually includes a tacit role of enforcing party discipline and sorting out internal disputes. Viewed as loyal to the party leadership, he has on occasion come into conflict with the trade union movement over party policy and organisation, especially apparent at theLabour Party Conferencein 2005.
Watt was appointed asgeneral secretaryby the Party'sNational Executive Committeeon 7 November 2005. He was not the candidate favoured by Prime Minister and Labour Party leaderTony Blair,[4]but won the NEC vote by some margin over his eventual successorRay Collins.[5][6]
BBC News reported that he resigned as general secretary on 26 November 2007 and he was quoted as saying that he knew about an arrangement by which one individual,David Abrahams,had made a number of donations to the Labour Party through third parties without the fact that he was ultimate donor being reported. He said that he had not appreciated that he had failed to comply with the reporting requirements.[7][8]Watt revealed he had known about the arrangement for about a year.[9]In May 2009 theCrown Prosecution Servicedecided there was insufficient evidence for any prosecution relating to these events.[10][11][12]
Later career
[edit]From March 2008 to December 2010 Watt was Chief Executive ofThe Campaign Company,aCroydonbased communications consultancy.
In January 2010, Watt published the bookInside Out,written withIsabel Oakeshott,describing his experiences as a senior Party official and his time as General Secretary of the Party.[4][13]
In November 2010 it was announced that he would become the Chief Executive of the older people's charityCounsel and Care[14]from 1 February 2011.
On 26 September 2011, Peter joined the NSPCC as Director of Child Protection, Advice and Awareness, on the NSPCC Executive Board.[15]In this role, he is responsible for leading the NSPCC's work to raise awareness of and increase support for child protection among the general public and key adult audiences. His role includes being Head of the NSPCC's Helpline.[16]
In September 2011, Peter Contributed toWhat next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation,his piece was entitled 'Building a party for the future'.[17]
Bibliography
[edit]- Watt, Peter;Oakeshott, Isabel(2010).Inside out: my story of betrayal and cowardice at the heart of New Labour.Biteback.ISBN9781849540384.
References
[edit]- ^abc"WATT, Peter Martin".Who's Who 2010 online edn.Oxford University Press. November 2009.Retrieved17 January2010.
- ^James Kirkup (29 November 2007)."Peter Watt, head of the party machine".Daily Telegraph.London. Archived fromthe originalon 29 November 2007.Retrieved6 December2007.
- ^"Money problems cost Watt his job".BBC.27 November 2007.Retrieved27 November2007.
- ^abRoy Hattersley (13 February 2010)."Inside Out by Peter Watt, with Isabel Oakeshott".The Guardian.London.Retrieved14 February2010.
- ^"7 November NEC report – Blair's Gen Sec choice defeated".Socialist Campaign Group News. 8 November 2005. Archived fromthe originalon 6 February 2006.Retrieved6 December2007.
- ^Kevin Maguire (6 December 2007)."The whispers".New Statesman.Retrieved7 December2007.
- ^"Labour boss quits over donations".BBC.26 November 2007.Retrieved26 November2007.
- ^Peter Watt (27 November 2007)."Statement from Peter Watt".Labour Party. Archived fromthe originalon 30 November 2007.Retrieved6 December2007.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^Patrick Wintour (1 December 2007)."The 'usual terms' that left Labour in a 'mind-blowing' mess".The Guardian.London.Retrieved6 December2007.
- ^"CPS decides no charges over Labour Party donations".Crown Prosecution Service.7 May 2009. Archived fromthe originalon 19 May 2009.Retrieved10 May2009.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^Alex Barker and Jim Pickard (7 May 2009)."Prosecutors drop Labour donations probe".Financial Times.Retrieved10 May2009.
- ^Isabel Oakeshott(10 May 2009)."'Brutal' Brown sacrificed party chief ".Sunday Times.London.Retrieved10 May2009.
- ^"Interview: Ex-Labour General Secretary Peter Watt on Gordon Brown".Daily Politics.BBC. 18 January 2010.Retrieved8 February2010.
- ^"Press Release".Counsel and Care.12 November 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 14 December 2010.Retrieved21 January2011.
- ^NSPCC Annual Report 2011/12(PDF)(Report). NSPCC. 2012.Retrieved19 October2012.
- ^"Update: Jimmy Savile child abuse inquiry".NSPCC. 19 October 2012.Retrieved19 October2012.
- ^www.whatnextforlabour.com/contributors/
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