MP for West Bromwich East and a member of the House of Commons Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee. He told the Inquiry that he stepped down as a minister in 2009 due to "unwarranted media intrusion" into his family life that year. The Inquiry acknowledged that he had taken an active role in monitoring the culture, practices and ethics of the Press since then. Told the Inquiry that News International commissioned a private investigator to trail him in 2009 over false claims of an affair, for which James Murdoch had apologised in evidence to the DCMS Select Committee. Watson described a "craven" relationship between the highest levels of government and News International. Played a robust role in the DCMS Select Committee investigation into phone hacking and subsequent report (2012), which stated that parliament had been misled by News International employees.
