Tory chiefs confident they can oust Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson in December general election
TORY chiefs think they can oust Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson in what would be the biggest scalp of the general election.
Traditionally a safe Labour seat, the veteran party bruiser’s patch of West Bromwich East has never been held by a Conservative.
But The Sun can reveal the pro-Leave constituency is now on Boris Johnson’s target list because of the multiple political and personal challenges that ardent Remainer Mr Watson faces.
The West Midlands rather than the North is now emerging as the most important battleground for the December 12 poll.
On top of Mr Watson’s, Tory chiefs have identified as many as 20 Labour seats there that could be vulnerable because of disenchantment with Jeremy Corbyn and his party’s confusion over Brexit.
It has also emerged that Boris will head straight to the Midlands to launch the Tories' election campaign on Wednesday after going to see the Queen to ask her to dissolve Parliament that morning.
Also last night as Week Two of the 2019 campaign begins;
- Ministers launched a fresh drive to boost wage levels as Sajid Javid got the green light to hike the minimum wage to £10.50 per hour by 2024.
- An MP ally of Jeremy Corbyn, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, slammed Labour’s Leave voters for having racist views as he accused them of being “dangerous” nationalists.
- It emerged Government spending will rocket to 1970s levels no matter who wins the election because of a raft of lavish promises from both main parties.
Mr Watson won his Black Country seat in 2017 with a majority of 7,713, leaving the Tories needing a mammoth 10% swing to take it.
But he is now at bitter odds with most of his voters over Brexit, as 68% of them backed Leave in the 2016 referendum and he is one of Labour’s most ardent supporters of a second referendum to overturn the result.
Two high profile other candidates are also standing against Mr Watson in a bid to hurt his vote – leftwing firebrand George Galloway, and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who wants to highlight Mr Watson’s disastrors role in helping to instigate the flawed child abuse witch hunt, Operation Midland.
11pt lead...
ANALYSIS of the five general election opinion polls over the weekend gives Boris Johnson’s Tories an 11 point lead.
The Sun crunched the numbers for the main parties in the five surveys by Opinium, ORB, Deltapoll, ComRes and YouGov.
As week two of six begins ahead of polling day on December 12, our poll of polls finds:
Conservatives — 38%.
Labour - 27%.
Lib Dems - 15%.
Brexit Party - 10%.
Greens — 2%.
Furthermore, Mr Watson is expected to get no help from Labour HQ and Mr Corbyn’s pressure group Momentum because of his furious battles with the Labour leader.
Other high profile decapitation targets for the Tories include former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron in the Cumbria seat of Westmorland and Lonsdale, and former Labour shadow cabinet members Mary Creagh in Wakefield, Caroline Flint, in Don Valley, and Emma Reynolds, in Wolverhampton North East.
Mr Watson’s next door constituency, West Bromwich West - held by Labour MP Adrian Bailey – is seen by Tory strategists as even more vulnerable, with a majority of just 4,460.
A senior Tory source said: “Tom Watson has used his time in Parliament as a platform to smear innocents and undermine trust in politics.
“He’s failed to apologise for his behaviour and has campaigned to cancel Brexit.
'SMEAR INNOCENTS & UNDERMINE TRUST'
“Voters will get the opportunity to hold him to account and choose an MP focused on what residents want, rather than chasing headlines.”
Labour’s bid to hold onto its Leave voters was further damaged last night when an attack on them emerged from Corbynista MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle.
Speaking at an event last month, dubbed Another Europe is Possible, the Remainer backer said: “There is a nasty strand at the moment in the Labour Party that is not actually Socialist, they have turned themselves into nationalists.
Warning that Brexiteers were the sort to spout racist views in working men’s clubs, Mr Russell-Moyle added: “That’s the kind of people that have taken parts of our party over and they are dangerous”.
Tory education ministers will today unveil £155 million to spend on high cost subjects for 16-19 year olds that will boost their earning potential.
They money will go into courses such as construction, engineering, manufacturing technologies and science.
At the same time, an independent review published today will find the Chancellor announcement to raise the minimum wage significantly will not be a drag on jobs.
Business bosses attacked the move when Mr Javid announced it at Tory conference.
But Professor Arindrajit Dube has ruled that rises in the legal level of low pay in a series of other countries had a negligible or no effect on jobs.
The Chancellor said: “The evidence is clear that our approach is the right one”.
But there is a warning to both main parties today on how their spending pledges will take the Government’s footprint back to 1970s levels.
The Conservative government has spent an average of 37.4 per cent of the nation’s annual earnings over the last nine years.
But that the Resolution Foundation calculates that generous ballot box offers by Boris Johnson and Mr Javid are set to push the figure to 41.3 per cent of GDP – almost the same 42 per cent average recorded between 1966 and 1984.
'DECADE OF AUSTERITY'
Meanwhile Labour Shadow Chancellor McDonnell’s vast pledges will take government spending as a share of GDP to 43.3 per cent, significantly above the 1970s average.
The Resolution Foundation’s Deputy Chief Executive Matt Whittaker said: “After an unprecedented decade of austerity, both main parties are gearing up to turn the spending taps back on.
“It’s important that the parties set out a detailed economic strategy in their manifestos that reflects the changing size and shape of the state, and the big demographic pressures to come.”
MOST READ IN POLITICS
Labour will hit back today to keep up its attack on the Tories’ management of the NHS.
It will claim new data reveals a huge increase in the number of cancelled operations because of staffing issues and equipment failures.
A total of 78,981 operations were cancelled, many of which were classed as urgent.
- GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]