Tom Watson urged to apologise to Lord Brittan's widow

Tom Watson should write to the widow of Lord Brittan to apologise following his role in the pursuit of sex abuse allegations against the peer, a critical report by MPs said.

The campaigning Labour deputy leader was accused of acting inappropriately over comments he repeated in a newspaper describing the late politician with the wording "as close to evil as any human could get".

Scotland Yard was also attacked over "errors of judgement" in the case by the Commons Home Affairs Committee.

Lord Brittan died in January without being told he would not face action over a claim, made to police in November 2012, that he raped a 19-year-old woman known as "Jane" in 1967.

The West Bromwich East MP has faced criticism over his involvement in the matter, including his repeating of the "evil" quote from an alleged sex abuse survivor in anewspaper article following the former Tory MP's death.

He said he was "sincerely sorry" for repeating the phrase and the distress caused to the family of Lord Brittan when he appeared before the committee last month.

But in their report members suggested he should go further and write to thelate politician's widow, describing his remarks at the hearing as a "qualifiedapology".

It said:

"We consider that it would have been more appropriate for Mr Watson to have written to Lady Brittan to apologise, and we recommend that he now does so."

The committee said it accepted Mr Watson's motivation in bringing the case to the attention of police, but said: "It is unfortunate that, in writing the article, he could not have hoped to achieve anything other than to further impugn the name of Lord Brittan."

It was "not appropriate" for the Labour MP to have made the comments in the press, the report said, saying it could have impacted on the Goddard inquiry into child abuse.

"Despite the police not naming Lord Brittan, Mr Watson took it upon himself to do so in the press. He did not first contact the police to find out why they had not named Lord Brittan nor did he contact the Goddard."