Future of The Public now MP Tom Watson's priority

The West Bromwich East MP resigned as Labour's deputy chairman and Ed Miliband's campaign co-ordinator on Thursday.

It came as the party is embroiled in a row about alleged influence by the Unite trade union over the selection of its candidates.

Mr Watson's office manager Karie Murphy has been suspended by the party. She was the union's favoured potential candidate for Falkirk in Scotland.

But Mr Watson has stressed that he has been thinking about stepping down from the role for the past six months and said he had nothing to do with the selection row in Falkirk. Speaking to the Express & Star about his next move he said: "There's a lot to do in West Bromwich. There are people concerned about the future of The Public and I'm going to do a consultation on that."

The £72m Public is threatened with closure with plans for it to be handed over to Sandwell College to use as a sixth form centre. It currently costs Sandwell Council £1.5m a year after the national quango The Arts Council walked away from the project in 2009.

"We have the regeneration of the town centre to complete", Mr Watson said. "There are other issues I want to speak out on. I used to be a defence minister and I want to look at the issue of drone technology."

And he said that people had not heard the last from him over the phone hacking scandal, which he helped to expose and which led to the closure of the News of the World.

Mr Watson said he had not spoken to Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, with whom he used to share a London home, since the row broke out.

"I haven't spoken to Len McCluskey but I'd say that we're better united than divided", Mr Watson said. "People have read conspiracies into this. It's just not true. It's my genuine belief that far from unions exerting too much influence they are at their least effective in 100 years in the Labour party", Mr Watson said.