Tom Watson, Baron Watson of Wyre Forest

The Right Honourable The Lord Watson of Wyre Forest
Official portrait, 2023
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
In office 12 September 2015 – 12 December 2019
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by	Harriet Harman
Succeeded by	Angela Rayner
Minister of State for Digital Engagement and Civil Service Issues
In office 25 January 2008 – 5 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Gillian Merron
Succeeded by	Dawn Butler
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans
In office 5 May 2006 – 6 September 2006
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Don Touhig
Succeeded by	Derek Twigg
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Life peerage
Assumed office 21 November 2022
Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East
In office 7 June 2001 – 6 November 2019
Preceded by	Peter Snape
Succeeded by	Nicola Richards
Government whip offices 2007–2008 Assistant Whip 2005–2006 Lord Commissioner 2004–2005 Assistant Whip
Shadow cabinet portfolios 2016–2019 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport 2015–2017 Party Chair 2015–2016 Cabinet Office 2011–2013 Deputy Party Chair 2011–2013 National Campaign Coordinator
Personal details
Born	Thomas Anthony Watson (1967-01-08) 8 January 1967 (age 57) Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Siobhan Corby ​ ​ (m. 2000; sep. 2012)​
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Hull
Signature

Thomas Anthony Watson, Baron Watson of Wyre Forest (born 8 January 1967) is a British politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2019. A member of the House of Lords since 2022, he was the member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich East from 2001 to 2019.

Born in Sheffield, Watson was raised in Kidderminster, where he was educated at King Charles I School. He first became involved in Labour Party and trade-union activism while studying at the University of Hull and was chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students from 1992 to 1993. After working in marketing and advertising, he began working full-time for the Labour Party, including on its 1997 general election campaign, and then for the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union.

Elected MP for West Bromwich East at the 2001 general election, Watson was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans from May to September 2006 and Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2008 to 2009. In October 2011, Ed Miliband appointed him as the Labour Party's national campaign coordinator and deputy chair. He resigned from both roles in July 2013, following a controversy over the selection of a new parliamentary candidate for Falkirk.

On 12 September 2015, Watson was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party alongside the new leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Following the conviction of Carl Beech in July 2019 for making false allegations of paedophilia, Watson was criticised by high-profile victims and their relatives for his role in the affair, known as Operation Midland. Watson stood down as an MP in November 2019 and as deputy leader of the Labour Party in 2019, stating that his reasons for doing so were "personal, not political". He later admitted that he had voted for Owen Smith in the 2016 leadership election. In March 2020, he was appointed chair of UK Music and later that year was made a senior adviser on problem gambling to Flutter Entertainment.