Watson offers no apology for handling of Brittan allegations

It comes after Mr Watson sparked controversy by claiming former peer Leon Brittan was guilty of “multiple child rape” days after his death in January this year.

He told LBC radio: “It is clear he has got a lot of questions to answer and the House of Commons Select Committees are, quite rightly, going to ask him a few questions”.

Responding to a Point of Order in the Commons this afternoon, Mr Watson was defiant.

Instead, he asked all MPs to examine their consciences, adding all politicians had “presided over a state of affairs where children have been abused and then ignored, dismissed and then disdained – if anyone deserves an apology it is them”.

Mt Watson has so far declined to comment, but MPs on a Home Affairs select committee are expected to discuss whether Mr Watson should be called on to explain his actions in public.

Mr Watson said he had simply “helped amplify” the voice of the alleged victim who felt they were not being listened to. “I don’t want to cause more distress than has already been caused”.

The police dropped their investigation into the allegations, but neither Lord Brittan or his family were informed before he died of cancer earlier this year.

“There has been a sea change in the climate surrounding rape, historic cases in particular”. Mr Watson is more susceptible to establishment conspiracy theories than a thinking person would be.

He tweeted that it would be “disgraceful were Tom Watson not to make personal statement to the House to apologise for the terrible false accusations he made”. I have passed more information to the police since then and a third man has also been sent to prison partly as a result of this. Honourable members feel aggrieved that Leon Britton was interviewed by the police and that they’re angry with my use of language.

Mr Cameron said the West Bromwich East MP should “examine his conscience” after Lord Brittan’s brother called on him for an apology. Let me set out as clearly as I can why I wrote that letter.

He added: “It is not for me to judge the validity of these claims”.

But he insisted it was his “duty” to pass on testimony from those claiming to have been abused to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). But it was for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to reach a judgment on that after examining all the available evidence. As the tributes flowed in from his lifelong friends I felt for those people who claimed he abused them.

In a piece for the Huffington Post on Friday, Watson said he believed Brittan would have been interviewed by the police even without his intervention.

However, Mr Watson’s suggestion that the investigation had not been carried out properly appears to be at odds with the revelation that police had concluded that Lord Brittan was not at the party in question.

“I need to be honest to myself and to people”.