Tom Watson is blaming Rupert Murdoch for the break down of his marriage. His wife Siobhan used to be on his payroll until the expenses crisis exposed him and in a shameless plug for his new book he says:

“I’m very sad to admit the failure of my marriage. I tried my very best to hold things together but the pressure of the hacking scandal inquiry has taken its toll.”

He says that it was the “aggressive” media intrusion which had increased his problems rather than his late night carousing sessions in Soho dives, his 9-hour long video game playing sessions and his wandering eye. By complete coincidence he has a big press conference this morning.

What Watson doesn’t mention about that “aggressive media intrusion” is that he was being followed by a hired private investigator at the 2009 Labour conference in Brighton because the News of the World editorial management did not trust their lobby hacks – who they saw as too close to Watson drinking buddies – to stand up stories about problems in his marriage.  The private-investigator followed him back to his hotel room…