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| Phone-hacking report: key MPs on the culture committee | |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| Tom Watson | |
| The clue to Tom Watson's apparent genius for making headlines might be in his early career in marketing and advertising. | |
| It was an unlikely start for the robust Labour MP for West Bromwich East, but might have helped hone his sense of populism. In his first year in parliament in 2001 he led a campaign to ban sales of an album by the convicted sex offender Gary Glitter, and later as junior defence minister for a mass pardon of first world war soldiers accused of cowardice. | |
| What propelled Watson, 45, to wider fame was using the platform of the culture, media and sport select committee last autumn to compare the News Corporation head Rupert Murdoch to a Mafia boss. | |
| He sealed his starring role in the Murdoch-hacking saga on Tuesday by engineering a majority vote from fellow committee members to insert what became the headline of the day: the judgement of MPs that Murdoch was "not fit" to run a large international company. | |
| Watson appears to share his party's common disdain for Liberal Democrats but had to rely on the deciding vote of the Lib Dem Adrian Sanders to pass his amendment against the opposition of the committee's five Conservative MPs. What it cost Watson in pride should be more than compensated by sales of his new book on the scandal, Dial M for Murdoch. | |
| Adrian Sanders | |
| Adrian Sanders, a middle-aged, mild, greying man, looks for all his life like a confirmed backbencher for a minority party. But his crucial deciding vote on the Murdoch empire was not the first time he has made his mark on this coalition government, and the nation. | Adrian Sanders, a middle-aged, mild, greying man, looks for all his life like a confirmed backbencher for a minority party. But his crucial deciding vote on the Murdoch empire was not the first time he has made his mark on this coalition government, and the nation. |
| Sanders, 53, was born and raised in his constituency, Torbay, where he first joined the then Liberal party in 1979 and still lives with his wife, Alison. On his website, Sanders explains he was disillusioned with the contemporary Labour government ignoring peripheral areas like Devon, and Margaret Thatcher's "unregulated capitalism". It is fitting, therefore, that he has made his boldest mark by being willing to stand up to the Murdoch empire. | Sanders, 53, was born and raised in his constituency, Torbay, where he first joined the then Liberal party in 1979 and still lives with his wife, Alison. On his website, Sanders explains he was disillusioned with the contemporary Labour government ignoring peripheral areas like Devon, and Margaret Thatcher's "unregulated capitalism". It is fitting, therefore, that he has made his boldest mark by being willing to stand up to the Murdoch empire. |
| Sanders lost to sitting Tory MP Rupert Allason in 1992, and then more narrowly in the European parliament election two years later when a "Literal Democrat" won 10,000 votes – prompting a change in the law to ban confusing party names. Since scraping through with a majority of just 12 in the 1997 Labour general election rout, he has steadily built his local popularity as an MP, defying a relatively poor Lib Dem result in 2010 with his best ever majority of more than 23,000. | Sanders lost to sitting Tory MP Rupert Allason in 1992, and then more narrowly in the European parliament election two years later when a "Literal Democrat" won 10,000 votes – prompting a change in the law to ban confusing party names. Since scraping through with a majority of just 12 in the 1997 Labour general election rout, he has steadily built his local popularity as an MP, defying a relatively poor Lib Dem result in 2010 with his best ever majority of more than 23,000. |
| But despite once working for the Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown, Sanders has never built on a couple of early jobs as the party's spokesman for housing and tourism. | But despite once working for the Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown, Sanders has never built on a couple of early jobs as the party's spokesman for housing and tourism. |
| Instead he campaigns from the backbenches, particularly on diabetes (he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes himself in 1990) and animal welfare, and perhaps sealed his career as what is known in the trade as an "independent-minded" backbencher by being the only Liberal Democrat MP to vote last year for a referendum on EU membership. Interestingly he was also willing to brave the indignation of fellow party MPs by vocally supporting the recent unpopular health and social care bill. | Instead he campaigns from the backbenches, particularly on diabetes (he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes himself in 1990) and animal welfare, and perhaps sealed his career as what is known in the trade as an "independent-minded" backbencher by being the only Liberal Democrat MP to vote last year for a referendum on EU membership. Interestingly he was also willing to brave the indignation of fellow party MPs by vocally supporting the recent unpopular health and social care bill. |
| "You could say he's old school: he sees his job as representing the constituency and holding the government to account rather than personal career progression," said a fellow Lib Dem. | "You could say he's old school: he sees his job as representing the constituency and holding the government to account rather than personal career progression," said a fellow Lib Dem. |
| On this occasion, though, it is unlikely to cause the party any embarrassment that they are separated from their Conservative coalition partners, who refused to vote for the most critical aspects of the report calling Rupert Murdoch's integrity into question – a point most Lib Dems are likely to agree with him on. | On this occasion, though, it is unlikely to cause the party any embarrassment that they are separated from their Conservative coalition partners, who refused to vote for the most critical aspects of the report calling Rupert Murdoch's integrity into question – a point most Lib Dems are likely to agree with him on. |