In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Mr Watson said conditions within the party were partly responsible for making his political career unsustainable. "The point is that the brutality and hostility is real and it's day to day," he said. And he revealed that he gave his backing to former MP Owen Smith when he challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership in 2016. "I did vote for Owen, but I've never said it publicly before," he told the paper. He criticised Labour's messaging in the campaign, saying: "There were announcements everywhere, but none of them got through because there were so many.

Source: Daily Mirror December 27, 2019 19:18 UTC