David Watts, Baron Watts

British politician (born 1951)

Tony Blair
Gordon Brown

Preceded byJohn HeppellSucceeded byAngela Watkinson

Parliamentary offices

Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Life peerage 23 October 2015
Member of Parliament for St Helens North
In office 1 May 1997 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	John Evans
Succeeded by	Conor McGinn

Personal detailsBorn (1951-08-26) 26 August 1951 (age 72)
St Helens, EnglandPolitical partyLabourSpouse

Avril Davies

(m. 1972)

Children2

David Leonard Watts, Baron Watts (born 26 August 1951) is a British politician and life peer who served in the Blair and Brown governments as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 2005 to 2010 and chaired the Parliamentary Labour Party as a backbencher from 2012 to 2015. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for St Helens North from 1997 to 2015.

Early life

Watts was educated at Malvern Primary School and Huyton Hey Secondary Modern School, Huyton. He was leader of St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council for four years. He was a union official at Huntley & Palmers' biscuit factory in Huyton.

Parliamentary career

Watts was a Government Whip and Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury from 2008 to 2010. On 15 March 2012, he was elected to succeed Tony Lloyd as the Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, a role he performed until he stood down to be replaced by John Cryer on 9 February 2015.^[1] He stood down at the 2015 General Election.^[2] Watts is associated with^[vague] the Labour Friends of Israel.^[3]

Watts was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.^[4] On 23 October 2015, he was created Baron Watts, of Ravenhead in the County of Merseyside, for life.^[5] By virtue of that life peerage, he became a member of the House of Lords. He entered the House of Lords on 3 December 2015 continuing to sit under the Labour whip.

Personal life

Watts married Avril Davies in 1972, with whom he has two sons.

References

^ "John Cryer Is The New Chair Of The PLP". LabourList. 9 February 2015.
^ "Dave Watts To Stand Down As St Helens North MP". St Helens Star. 3 January 2015.
^ "2014 11 – Parliamentary Notes". Labour Affairs Magazine. November 2014.
^ "Dissolution Peerages 2015". Gov.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
^ "No. 61394". The London Gazette. 29 October 2015. p. 21238.

External links

Guardian Unlimited Policies - Ask Aristotle: David Watts MP
TheyWorkForYou.com - Dave Watts MP
House of Lords
Voting record

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Evans	Member of Parliament for St Helens North 1997–2015	Succeeded by Conor McGinn
Party political offices
Preceded by Tony Lloyd	Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party 2012–2015	Succeeded by John Cryer
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by The Lord Hain	Gentlemen Baron Watts	Followed by The Lord Stunell

Labour Party

History

Main

History of the Labour Party

Topics

Electoral history
General election manifestos
History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom
European Parliamentary Labour Party
Scottish Labour Party (1888)
Independent Labour Party
Labour Representation Committee
Gladstone–MacDonald pact
National Labour Organisation
Labour Independent Group
Campaign for Democratic Socialism
Lib–Lab pact
Formation of SDP
- Gang of Four
- Limehouse Declaration
Militant tendency
The longest suicide note in history
One more heave
New Labour
Tony's Cronies
Blue Labour
One Nation Labour
Chakrabarti Inquiry

Leadership

Leaders	Hardie Henderson Barnes MacDonald Henderson Adamson Clynes MacDonald Henderson Lansbury Attlee Morrison^ Gaitskell Brown^ Wilson Callaghan Foot Kinnock Smith Beckett^ Blair Brown Harman^ Miliband Harman^ Corbyn Starmer
Deputy Leaders	Clynes Graham Attlee Greenwood Morrison Griffiths Bevan Brown Jenkins Short Foot Healey Hattersley Beckett Prescott Harman Watson Rayner
General Secretaries	MacDonald Henderson Middleton Phillips Williams Barker^ Nicholas Hayward Mortimer Whitty Sawyer McDonagh Triesman Carter Watt Collins McNicol Formby Evans
Treasurers	Henderson MacDonald Henderson Lathan Greenwood Gaitskell Bevan Nicholas Davies Callaghan Atkinson Varley Booth McCluskie Burlison Prosser Elsby Dromey Holland
Leaders in the Lords	Haldane Cripps Ponsonby Snell Addison Jowitt Alexander Pakenham Shackleton Shepherd Peart Hughes Richard Jay Williams Amos Ashton Royall Smith of Basildon
Scottish Labour Leaders	Dewar McLeish Jamieson^ McConnell Jamieson^ Alexander Jamieson^ Gray Lamont Sarwar^ Murphy Gray^ Dugdale Rowley^ Baillie^ Leonard Sarwar
PLP Chairs	Hardie Henderson Barnes MacDonald Henderson Hodge* Wardle* Adamson Clynes MacDonald Henderson Lansbury Attlee Lees-Smith* Pethick-Lawrence* Greenwood* Gaitskell Wilson Houghton Mikardo Hughes Willey Dormand Orme Hoyle Soley Corston Clwyd Lloyd Watts Cryer
EPLP Leaders	Stewart Prescott Castle Lomas Martin Seal Ford Green David Donnelly Murphy Titley Willmott Corbett
* = wartime, in opposition ^ Interim/Acting

Internal elections and selections

Leadership elections	1922 Ramsay MacDonald 1931 Arthur Henderson 1932 George Lansbury 1935 Clement Attlee 1955 Hugh Gaitskell 1960 1961 1963 Harold Wilson 1976 James Callaghan 1980 Michael Foot 1983 Neil Kinnock 1988 1992 John Smith 1994 Tony Blair 2007 Gordon Brown 2010 Ed Miliband 2015 Jeremy Corbyn 2016 2020 Keir Starmer
Deputy Leadership elections	1952 Herbert Morrison 1953 1956 Jim Griffiths 1959 Aneurin Bevan 1960 George Brown 1961 1962 1970 Roy Jenkins 1971 1972 Edward Short 1976 Michael Foot 1980 Denis Healey 1981 1983 Roy Hattersley 1988 1992 Margaret Beckett 1994 John Prescott 2007 Harriet Harman 2015 Tom Watson 2020 Angela Rayner
Shadow Cabinet elections and reshuffles	Sep 1931 (Henderson) Nov 1931 1932 (Lansbury) 1933 1934 1935 (Attlee) 1936 1937 1938 1939 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 (Gaitskell) 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 (Wilson) 1970 1971 1972 1973 1979 (Callaghan) 1980 (Foot) 1981 1982 1983 (Kinnock) 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 (Smith) 1993 1994 (Blair) 1995 1996 2010 (Miliband) June 2016 (Corbyn) May 2021 (Starmer) November 2021 2023

Party structure

Constitution	Clause IV
Executive	National Executive Committee General Secretary Treasurer
Parliamentary	Parliamentary Labour Party Chief Whip of the Labour Party
Conference	Labour Party Conference
Subnational	Scottish Labour Welsh Labour Labour Party in Northern Ireland Yorkshire and the Humber Labour Party
Directly elected city mayoral authorities	London Labour
CLPs	Constituency Labour Party Labour International
Miscellaneous	National Policy Forum Affiliated trade unions Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation Labour Co-operative Co-operative Party Labour – Federation of Labour Groups

Associated organisations

List	Organisations associated with the Labour Party
Sectional groups	Young Labour Labour International LGBT+ Labour Labour Campaign for Trans Rights Labour Students BAME Labour Disability Labour
Factional groups	Blue Labour Campaign for Labour Party Democracy Christians on the Left Compass Fabian Society Young Fabians Future Britain Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance Jewish Labour Movement Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform Labour CND Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East Labour Party Irish Society Labour Representation Committee (2004) Momentum Open Labour National Union of Labour and Socialist Clubs Progress Revolutionary Communist Party Formerly Socialist Appeal Socialist Health Association Socialist Educational Association Socialist Environment and Resources Association Socialist Campaign Group Socialist Youth Network Socialist societies
Media publications	LabourList Tribune