Tom Watson explains what he's looking for in the next Labour leader

6 January 2020, 13:47 | Updated: 6 January 2020, 20:01

He said the person he votes for has two major challenges to overcome.

Nick Ferrari asked for the former deputy leader of the Labour Party what the future of the party is.

Watson replied: "As yet, uncertain. All the leaders in this race, I don't know I'm going to vote for yet but I know what I want them to do.

"I mean, they've got to explain to half a million Labour Party members why Labour keeps losing elections. We've not won one for a decade, we've only won three out of the last 11.

"Then when they've done that, they've got to convince the country that Labour is electable again.

"So that's two big challenges. The person that can answer those two questions or rise to those challenges is the person I'll vote for."

Nick Ferrari asked Tom Watson if he expected the level of defeat for the party in the General Election.

He replied: "I thought it would be pretty bad. I thought it would be very difficult to turn around the Conservative Party poll lead.

"You know, a lot of people believe that there could be a sort of 2017 where the gap could be closed but I thought that would be very difficult.

"But you know, I was obviously disappointed to see those results and to see some very good colleagues work very hard for their constituents lose their seats, you know, in what was not really their fault.

"It wasn't the work they did that meant they lost. I felt very sorry for them."

He then told Nick Ferrari that he enjoyed "warm, personal relationships" with Jeremy Corbyn but he just disagreed with his stance on Europe and anti-Semitism.