Peter Watt

Peter Martin Watt (born 20 July 1969)[1] was the General Secretary of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom from January 2006 until he resigned in November 2007 as a result of the Donorgate affair. Watt was then a member of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) Executive Board. He is now working for Hammersmith council directing all services relating to children.

Peter Watt
General Secretary of the Labour Party
In office
January 2006 – November 2007
Leader
Preceded byMatt Carter
Succeeded byRay Collins
Personal details
Born (1969-07-20) 20 July 1969
York, England
Political partyLabour

Early and family life

From 1989 to 1992 Watt trained as a nurse at a predecessor institution to Bournemouth University, then worked for Poole Hospital NHS Trust.[1][2]

He is married and, as of 2007, the father of three children as well as a foster carer.[3]

Labour Party

From 1996 he worked for the Labour Party, first as a local organiser for Battersea and Wandsworth, then in Labour Party head office on election delivery and recruitment and then as Regional Director of the Eastern region. In 2004 he gained a Professional Certificate in Management from the Open University.[1]

He returned to the Labour Party head office as Director of Finance and Compliance in 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 the Labour Party Conference in 2005.

Watt was appointed as general secretary by the Party's National Executive Committee on 7 November 2005. He was not the candidate favoured by Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Tony Blair,[4] but won the NEC vote by some margin.[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 the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence for any prosecution relating to these events.[10][11][12]

Later career

From March 2008 to December 2010 Watt was Chief Executive of The Campaign Company, a Croydon based communications consultancy.

In January 2010, Watt published the book Inside Out, written with Isabel 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 charity Counsel 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 to What next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation, his piece was entitled 'Building a party for the future'.[17]

Bibliography
  • Watt, Peter; Oakeshott, Isabel (2010). Inside out: my story of betrayal and cowardice at the heart of New Labour. Biteback. ISBN 9781849540384.
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References
  1. "WATT, Peter Martin". Who's Who 2010 online edn. Oxford University Press. November 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  2. James Kirkup (29 November 2007). "Peter Watt, head of the party machine". Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 6 December 2007.
  3. "Money problems cost Watt his job". BBC. 27 November 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2007.
  4. Roy Hattersley (13 February 2010). "Inside Out by Peter Watt, with Isabel Oakeshott". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
  5. "7 November NEC report – Blair's Gen Sec choice defeated". Socialist Campaign Group News. 8 November 2005. Archived from the original on 6 February 2006. Retrieved 6 December 2007.
  6. Kevin Maguire (6 December 2007). "The whispers". New Statesman. Retrieved 7 December 2007.
  7. "Labour boss quits over donations". BBC. 26 November 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2007.
  8. Peter Watt (27 November 2007). "Statement from Peter Watt". Labour Party. Archived from the original on 30 November 2007. Retrieved 6 December 2007. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. Patrick Wintour (1 December 2007). "The 'usual terms' that left Labour in a 'mind-blowing' mess". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 December 2007.
  10. "CPS decides no charges over Labour Party donations". Crown Prosecution Service. 7 May 2009. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009. Retrieved 10 May 2009. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. Alex Barker and Jim Pickard (7 May 2009). "Prosecutors drop Labour donations probe". Financial Times. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
  12. Isabel Oakeshott (10 May 2009). "'Brutal' Brown sacrificed party chief". Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
  13. "Interview: Ex-Labour General Secretary Peter Watt on Gordon Brown". Daily Politics. BBC. 18 January 2010. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  14. "Press Release". Counsel and Care. 12 November 2010. Archived from the original on 14 December 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  15. NSPCC Annual Report 2011/12 (PDF) (Report). NSPCC. 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  16. "Update: Jimmy Savile child abuse inquiry". NSPCC. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  17. www.whatnextforlabour.com/contributors/
Party political offices
Preceded by
Matt Carter		 General Secretary of the Labour Party
2006–2007		 Succeeded by
Ray Collins
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