Jeremy Corbyn faced further criticism after he appointed a convicted arsonist and an MP arrested for football hooliganism in the 1980s to key positions in the Labour party.

Disgraced Mike Watson, a Labour peer who served eight months in prison for starting a fire in a hotel in November 2004, has been promoted to education spokesman.

And MP Ian Lavery, a hardline ex-union baron who was arrested for hooliganism at a football game, has been handed a Shadow Cabinet Office role.

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Promoted: Mike Watson, left, a Labour peer who served eight months in prison for starting a fire in a hotel in 2004, and MP Ian Lavery, an ex-union baron who was arrested for hooliganism at a football game in the 1980s

Mike Watson admitted he deliberately set fire to a curtain after a drinking session at the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards in 2004.

He initially denied the charge, but CCTV footage showed him crouching at the base of the curtain minutes before it was engulfed in flames at the five-star Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh.

Lord Watson of Invergowrie later admitted one charge of wilful-fire raising, at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He was released after serving half of it.

Sheriff Kathrine Mackie said he had put people's lives in danger. The blaze also caused around £4,500 of damage, which he later agreed to pay for.

The court heard Lord Watson was drunk, but Sheriff Mackie said this did not excuse or explain his behaviour. She said: 'Someone in public office ought to know how to conduct himself on all occasions...

'Fire-raising is a most serious crime. By pleading guilty you have acknowledged that you intended to set on fire property at Prestonfield House Hotel, whereby property was damaged and lives endangered'.

Under fire: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

A pre-sentence report said he presented a 'significant risk of re-offending' which made a jail sentence appropriate.

Lord Watson resigned from the Scottish parliament, where he represented Glasgow Cathcart and was briefly a tourism minister. He also stood down as a director of Dundee United Football Club. He was suspended from the Labour party for seven years, but reinstated as a peer in 2012.

The awards ceremony – in which Lord Watson was not honoured - was said to have passed without incident. But the court heard in the early hours of the morning he became increasing drunk and was behaving in a 'hostile manner'.

Prosecuting, Adrian Fraser said: 'The accused was rude to staff and asked forcefully for more wine.' The court was shown footage of him setting the curtain alight in a room known as the Whisky room.

And the peer's lawyer said he committed the crime' without motive, reason or recollection'. Lord Watson was allowed to keep his life peerage and sat as an independent before being re-admitted to Labour three years ago.

A prolific expenses claimer, he was estimated in 2012 to have cost £10,000 for every time he had spoken in the House of Lords – speaking just five times in a year but claiming £48,000 in expenses.

Now aged 66, he receives a pension said to be worth £15,000 a year from Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament.

He will serve as a member of the team under shadow education secretary Lucy Powell. It is unusual for a Scottish politician to be given such a role because education is devolved.

The move was branded as 'bizarre' by the SNP, which claimed it was proof Mr Corbyn was 'scrambling around' to find people to fill the frontbench roles.

John McTernan, Tony Blair's former political secretary, said: 'Given his past, Mike Watson is a very odd choice for a junior education spokesman.'

A spokesman said for Mr Corbyn said: 'He has spent his penalty and we are in favour of rehabilitation. There's a view that he should be given an opportunity and he would be very good at it.'

Other appointments: Keir Starmer, left, joins the shadow home affairs team while Emily Thornberry returns to the frontbench less than a year after being forced to quit as shadow attorney general in a row over snobbery

Meanwhile, Ian Lavery, an ex-president of the National Union of Mineworkers, has been appointed as shadow charities minister with an expanded brief that will also cover trade unions.

The MP for Wansbeck, Northumberland was convicted of 'football hooliganism' after being arrested in February 1985 at a match between Manchester United and Newcastle United.

Mr Lavery also declared in 2005 that he had 'absolutely no respect for the police' and has claimed he was arrested six times during the miners' strike.

Although Mr Lavery has acknowledged in the past that he was 'arrested for hooliganism' in 1985, he denies he is a football hooligan. Instead, he claims the police were 'out to get me'.

'I was arrested for football hooliganism, they said I ran towards 500 Manchester United supporters to try and start a fight,' he said in an interview in 2005.

'I know I'm a big lad, but I'm not stupid. They arrested me and threw me in the van and assaulted me. I had to have part of my ear stitched... One of them spat in my face.'

He added: 'In court, they told lie after lie and I was fined.... That is why I have absolutely no respect for the police.'

The appointment was part of the finalised team put together by Mr Corbyn following his victory last weekend.

Former top prosecutor Keir Starmer, tipped as a future leader, joins the shadow home affairs team while Emily Thornberry returns to the frontbench less than a year after being forced to quit as shadow attorney general in a row over snobbery.

JEREMY CORBYN'S FIRST SHADOW CABINET IN FULL

By Matt Chorley, Political Editor for MailOnline and James Slack for the Daily Mail

Leader: Jeremy Corbyn

Hardline leftwinger, stunned everyone - including himself - by sweeping to victory in the leadership contest, gaining 60 per cent of the vote.

He wants to end austerity, nationalise the railways and energy firms, hammer the middle-classes and scrap Trident. His opposition to airstrikes against ISIS jihadis in Syria is likely to prove contentious in the coming weeks.

Hailing his new team, he said: 'We have delivered a unifying, dynamic, inclusive new shadow cabinet which for the first time ever has a majority of women. The shadow cabinet is a strong combination of change and continuity that will now come together to hold this Government to account.'