Home Affairs Committee to question Labour deputy leader Tom Watson over Leon Brittan allegations
It's more bad news for those at the top of the Labour party as the influential Home Affairs Committee summons deputy leader Tom Watson to answer questions over the allegations he made against Leon Brittan.
The Home Affairs Committee is to hold evidence on Wednesday 21 October around matters "currently in the public domain concerning the late Leon Brittan" and said it was also inviting "Tom Watson MP to appear to give evidence during the session, to clarify a number of points concerning his involvement in these matters".
Chair of the committee Keith Vaz said the evidence session in "intended as a continuation of the regular series of very helpful regular updates which the Committee received from the Metropolitan Police in the last Parliament and to hear evidence on a particular case." Vaz added:
The Committee fully appreciates that ongoing operational activities are a matter for the police and these areas will not be discussed during the session.
Earlier this week Watson refused to apologise for his demands that police investigate sex abuse claims against Brittan, which caused the police to interview Brittan again after having previously dropped the case.
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This follows on from high tensions at a Parliamentary Labour Party meeting yesterday, trailing shadow chancellor John McDonnell's U-turn on supporting the government's "fiscal charter".