Lord Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, has announced he is taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords following the recurrence of his cancer.
The Labour peer was initially diagnosed with non-aggressive prostate cancer in March 2023, from which he later received the all clear.
However, the former minister, who served under both Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, revealed in a Substack post on Friday that he was informed earlier this year that the disease had returned.
While initial tests have suggested this second bout of cancer has “gone”, Lord Watson is scheduled to undergo further checks later this summer.
His announcement comes as the government recently advised against a population-wide prostate cancer screening programme, instead recommending testing for only a “few thousand” high-risk men.
In his Substack post, Lord Watson, who previously resigned as a minister under Sir Tony Blair, also detailed his renewed struggle with weight.
He had previously shed more than 125 pounds but admitted to regaining weight in recent years after ceasing exercise following his initial diagnosis. He described his busy schedule in the House of Lords, combined with renovating a house, as contributing to “over 1,000 days of drift and denial”.
Lord Watson said he had previously used the weight-loss drug Mounjaro but had put the weight back on. He said he has stopped drinking, was exercising more and had changed his diet.
The former MP for West Bromwich East wrote: “I knew the weight was piling on because my clothes no longer fitted me. I did not know how much I weighed because the denial toxin was flowing through my veins again.
“Today’s transgression would always be compensated for on another day, at an undefined time, in a future that was somehow both inevitable and never scheduled. Weight, blood pressure and blood glucose were the only things I was strong enough to push upwards.”
He continued: “Not only was I obese again, but the cancer came back earlier this year. Is it weird to say this was the wake-up call I needed to choose life again? Perhaps it is. But it is true.
“This time, I knew I had to build life around health again. Not bolt it on. Not squeeze it into whatever was left after work, travel, stress, email, politics, family, deadlines and the general admin of being alive. I had to put health at the centre and let everything else arrange itself around it.
He added: “So I have taken a leave of absence from the House of Lords for treatment and recuperation.
“Initial tests suggest the cancer has gone, though I will not know for certain until more tests in the summer. Despite the uncertainty, I feel good. Chipper, in fact.”
Earlier this year, Lord Watson led a bill through the House of Lords to allow pubs to stay open later for events of “national significance”, including international football finals.
