Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson, who has led the recent internal criticism of Jeremy Corbyn, had dinner with a key strategist behind the plan for a new centrist party on Thursday night.



Watson met with Philip Collins, a former adviser to Tony Blair who has been leading talks about a breakaway movement from Labour, at the upmarket Smith and Wollensky steakhouse in Covent Garden.

Both Watson and Collins confirmed to BuzzFeed News that they had dined together. Neither denied that they discussed the plans for a new centrist party, but they said that was not the focus of the meeting.

Collins said: “I was pushing my book on him as I gather he's in the market for policy ideas. Not sure he bought it, either metaphorically or literally.”

A spokesperson for Watson said: “Tom did meet Phil last night. Phil had asked Tom to talk about his new policy initiative in the PLP, that was what it was about.”

The dinner will raise further questions within the Labour party about Watson’s recent activity, amid suspicions among Corbyn’s allies that he is manoeuvring against the Labour leadership.