LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn was last night urged to axe the convicted fire-raiser Lord Mike Watson from his front bench.
The disgraced Scots peer, who served eight months in jail after drunkenly starting a fire in a crowded hotel, was named on Friday as Corbyn’s education spokesman in the Lords.
The appointment was particularly awkward for Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, as she has made education her key policy area at Holyrood.
Corbyn’s spokesman said Watson, 66, deserved a second chance: “He has spent his penalty and we are in favour of rehabilitation."
However SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie said the promotion was plain wrong.
“Jeremy Corbyn needs to reconsider this and do the right thing by removing Lord Watson from his front bench team. We know many people in Labour are refusing to work with the new leader - but appointing a peer who was found guilty of fire-raising, endangering people's lives, is a step too far.”
A former tourism minister and MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, Watson was caught on CCTV setting fire to curtains at a political awards ceremony in Edinburgh in November 2004.
He eventually plead guilty to wilful fire-raising.
Passing sentence in September 2005, Sheriff Kathrine Mackie revealed a social enquiry assessment had concluded there was a “significant risk” of him re-offending.
She said: “Fire-raising is a most serious crime. The potential for serious injury to guests and staff within the hotel, and for very significant damage to the property, was considerable."
Watson was sentenced to 16 months in prison but released after just eight.
Despite calls for him to be stripped of his title, he resumed his seat in the Lords.
Expelled from Labour for his crime, he was allowed back into the party in 2012.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel