PRESSURE is mounting on Tom Watson to resign as Labour’s deputy leader after senior figures condemned his attacks on the party’s general secretary Jennie Formby.

Shadow cabinet ministers and members of the party’s governing national executive committee (NEC) have lined up to condemn Mr Watson for demanding that Ms Formby hand over cases on anti-semitism to him following the showing of a Panomara investigation on anti-semitism in Labour.

In response, Ms Formby said that Mr Watson was “denigrating” the progress that had been made in purging Labour of anti-semites.

In a letter to him, she said: “Traducing my reputation and publicly attacking me when you know I am undergoing chemotherapy and am unable to respond in the media, is another example of the inappropriate way in which you choose to discuss this issue.”