Watson, the Private Eye has revealed, addressed a meeting of the right-wing Freedom Association
Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) Chief Constable Steve Watson, who reopened an investigation into Labour’s Angela Rayner over her living arrangements after Tory pressure, previously spoke at the Tory Party conference last year, it has been revealed.
Watson, the Private Eye has revealed, addressed a meeting of the right-wing Freedom Association. The meeting was chaired by Freedom Association Chairman David Campbell Bannerman, a former UKIP deputy leader, who has since rejoined the Tories.
Private eye stated that the appearance of Watson at the meeting had ‘raised questions about his political impartiality, as since the event he’s garnered Tory support for leading the Metropolitan Police due to his “robust” approach. He’s backed by MP James Daly… who advocated for the Rayner investigation’s reopening.’
Greater Manchester Police is currently looking into claims Rayner may have broken electoral law in the early 2010s.
The MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne was registered on the electoral roll at her Stockport council house from 2007 until 2015 and says this was her principle property. Her husband was listed at another address around a mile away. Tory critics have claimed that she may have broken electoral law by declaring her own home, Vicarage Road, to be her main residence rather than her then husband’s home and have also alleged that she may owe capital gains tax on the 2015 sale of her Stockport home. However, Rayner has insisted that she has done nothing wrong and has received legal advice that no rules have been broken.
Responding to the revelations that its police chief spoke at the Tory Party conference and whether this undermined his impartiality, GMP police told the Private Eye that Watson had attended the event in his capacity as Chief Constable of Greater Manchester to talk about what he is doing to reduce crime and that he welcomes the opportunity to speak at the Labour Party conference should they return to Manchester.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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