Register of MPs’ interests shows that former Formula One boss gave money to support Watson’s office as deputy leader and shadow culture secretary

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has received half a million pounds in donations from Max Mosley in less than a year, official records show.

The latest register of MPs’ interests reveals that Watson registered a donation worth £300,000 from the former boss of Formula One this month. It was made via the party to support Watson’s office as deputy leader and shadow culture secretary.

That followed a £200,000 donation from Mosley last June for a similar purpose. Mosley had previously donated £40,000 to support Watson’s bid to become the party’s deputy leader in 2015.

“I’m proud to call Max Mosley a friend and I’m delighted he has made a financial contribution to Labour,” Watson said. “His generous donation will help the party develop strong policies for our next manifesto.”

The pair share an interest in press regulation, with Mosley a victim of a newspaper sting involving images of him at a sex party, and Watson having supported a full implementation of the Leveson recommendations. The Mosley-funded group Impress, which was set up in the wake of those recommendations, received recognition as a state-backed press regulator last October.

The Independent Press Regulation Trust agreed to a £3.8m four-year funding deal for Impress and said this money had been guaranteed by the Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust, a trust set up by Max Mosley in memory of his late son.



Impress also received a “generous” donation from the writer JK Rowling, who also donated to Watson’s deputy leader bid.

The decision to recognise Impress set in motion a possible chain of events that would see newspapers forced to pay the costs of people who make legal complaints against them - even if the paper wins the case.

The power is afforded the government by section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which the culture secretary must decide whether or not to trigger now that a state-backed press regulator has been recognised.



When the culture secretary, Karen Bradley, appeared before a parliamentary select committee at the time Impress was recognised, Watson called on her to say whether or not she intended to activate section 40.

He said: “Labour has consistently called for the Leveson recommendations to be implemented in full. A new system of independent self-regulation was agreed by the three main political parties in 2013 following consultation with victims of press intrusion and the promises made to them at the time should be honoured.

“The culture secretary must now urgently clarify her position on section 40 and tell us whether she will enact the legislation that would allow independent self-regulation to succeed.”