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Tom Watson elected as Labour’s deputy leader

The West Bromwich East MP has triumphed in the deputy leadership race.

By Stephen Bush

Tom Watson has been crowned as deputy leader of the Labour party.

Watson, who prior to being elected as MP for West Bromwich East in 2001 worked as a party staffer and trade union official, had been widely expected to prevail in the deputy leadership race from the outset.

Watson’s victory completes a remarkable turnaround for the backbench MP. Having resigned in 2013 over his role in the Falkirk affair – the third of his career – many believed that his career on the frontbench was over, and that he would instead plough a furrow as a campaigning MP from the backbenches. 

But Watson’s triumph also means that it is now a near-certainty that all of Labour’s top three posts will be held by men, after Sadiq Khan’s triumph in the mayoral race yesterday, and with Jeremy Corbyn’s victory a near certainty.

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