… Though not many. The baronetcy heir apparent tests the effects on the working man of his 1p cut to the price of beer, pulling a pint for Tom Watson in parliament’s Strangers bar last night. Sampling the latest from his local brewery, called Pennies from Eleven apparently. Must not make eye contact…

Via @michaeldughermp

Last month Guido reported that Joan Ryan, former Labour MP expenses piggy turned wannabe candidate in Enfield North, was trying to stitch up a seat for a pal in a neighbouring constituency. She brought along dozens of new members to Enfield Southgate CLP’s AGM in order to back Ibrahim Dogus, though for some reason didn’t want to answer Guido’s questions about the little trick.

Guido has now seen an official complaint from the secretary of the local party to Labour HQ alleging the new members had joined the party the previous day. Crucially the secretary suggests the fishy plot was dreamt up at a dinner with Tom Watson:

What’s going on, Tommy?

As Guido reported in his Sun on Sunday column, the Labour triumvirate of Tom Watson, John Spellar and Michael Dugher are being remarkably tight-lipped about what was discussed over lunch with Lord Ashcroft last week, and who picked up the tab. A friend points out that “Tom Watson’s credit card hasn’t been seen in 25 years” and Spellar is a notoriously “careful with his money” Yorkshireman. Presumably that means Aschroft made his first donation to the Labour Party by footing the bill.

And it’s paying off: the flirting continues this morning, with Ashcroft gleefully retweeting Watson’s digs at Gove and Watson laying on the praise for Ashcroft’s polling. It seems Watson can be bought off with food…

Intrigued to spot billionaire Tory ex-deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft at lunch with 3 Labour MPs – @MichaelDugherMP @spellar and Tom Watson.—
David Wooding (@DavidWooding) May 07, 2013

No doubt Watson took the opportunity to ask Ashcroft awkward questions about his relationship with politicians, as he has been doing for the best part of a decade…

UPDATE: 

Guido hears lunch was at Gran Paradiso in Victoria.

Tories obsessing again with the EU – despite @lordashcroft warning them last year about misconceptions of UKIP… conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2012/…—
Michael Dugher (@MichaelDugherMP) May 07, 2013

Looks like one of the lunchers got some early brown-nosing in before they sat down.

There is now cross-party unity condemning the Hacked Off drafted attempt to regulate the blogosphere, as Tom Watson backs the Blog Off campaign against control of the internet:

“It is clear to all but the very stupid that the new system should only apply to big media -with print operations that might also have a digital presence. Maria Miller should urgently clarify how this will be achieved.”

As one of the guilty men leading the charge against the free press, it’s better late than never.

Good to have a “propa blogger” on board…

Watson belted out the Kings of Leon classic last night alongside Labour songstresses Luciana Berger and Gloria De Piero. All for charity of course. You can donate to his Comic Relief page here…

The BBC’s James Purnell gives his assessment of Tom Watson:

“a cancer at the heart of the Labour Party”

Over the last few days the Hacked Off brigade have been desperate for it to emerge that the prank call nurse had been contacted by hacks before she took her own life. Evan Harris salivated on Saturday:

Good question. Anyone know? RT @ChristinaMaroc do we know if our press were hassling Jacintha Saldanha?—
Dr Evan Harris (@DrEvanHarris) December 08, 2012

Tom Watson even went as far as directly accusing journalists of “spooking” the woman, despite the fact they did not know her name:

Ask yourself how many reporters spooked that poor, poor woman? It wasn't irrelevant at all Jim Dowd: theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=201…—
  (@tom_watson) December 07, 2012

Now the Press Complaints Commission have poured water on the press-haters’ wet dream. Lord Hunt told MPs earlier:

MP: “Was nurse hounded by press before she took her life?”
LH: “I don’t think so”

Yet another one in the eye for Watson. He’s not having a good run of it lately…

Well the Tom Watson re-branding exercise didn’t last very long. Having lit the touch-paper for incorrect Tory paedo-outings and then running away, Watson has been keeping a rather low profile of late. That did not escape the notice of one Tory MP though, as reported in yesterday’s Daily Star Sunday:

LABOUR bruiser Tom Watson was surprisingly absent during the Prime Minister’s statement about the Leveson Inquiry on the day the report into the Press was published. Backbench Tory MP Andrew Bridgen remarked on the large Watson-shaped hole on the Labour benches during the debate. When on Monday morning they came face to face in the cloisters around Parliament, Bridgen chirpily said: “We missed you on Thursday, Tom.” At which point Watson, “shaking with rage”, jabbed his finger at Bridgen and menacingly told him: “You’re going to f**king regret that.”

What’s that thing about leopards and spots?

The rest of Guido’s Sunday column, including Harriet Harman’s “bit of rough”, an update on Euan Blair and Sally’s disappointment, is now online.

Tom Watson used the Labour Party mailing list to send out a characteristically dramatic email over the weekend, calling for the government to “implement the core recommendations” of the Leveson report:

“We will bring to bear every resource, call in every promise, rattle every skeleton in every cupboard. This is a step too far by Cameron. The whole country knows he doesn’t have the moral legitimacy to do it. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure we implement the core recommendations of the Leveson report. Cameron wants to sell-out to Rupert Murdoch and powerful press interests because he is scared, and he is weak. But that is why he cannot succeed – because he is weak. And he is wrong.”

Despite the celebrity astroturf group calling for full implementation, Watson is using Labour Party resources to direct people to the Hacked Off petition, where you can sign up as many times as you like, with as many fake names and watch the supporter count grow. Guido signed as Divine Brown.

Team Miliband have rowed back slightly from their hook, line and sinker swallowing of Leveson last week. Apparently there are some data protection worries to deal with. Talking of data, Labour HQ are using Leveson as an opportunity to cynically harvest voter data for the next election. A section of the party website features Maddie McCann and Milly Dowler, asking people to pledge their support. Except the small print reveals the postcode and email data will be used for Labour MPs to contact you. Stay classy…