Philip George Watkins (5 November 1930 – 1 June 1995) was an English accountant and Liberal Party politician.
[7] Devotedly loyal to Jeremy Thorpe, Watkins stayed unswervingly Liberal and took on other responsibilities in the party.
[12] However it has been alleged that Watkins' approach to this issue was to accept the status quo rather than probe too deeply and run the risk of finding out what was under the stones.
[13][14] A more charitable explanation was that Watkins found it hard to accept that Liberals, especially those to whom he had given his loyalty, did not share his own high standards.
One senior party official who worked closely with him recalled that Watkins loathed fund-raising and had once sent back a cheque enclosing a rare and unsolicited donation from the company Cadburys with a statement that the Liberal Party did not accept contributions from business.
[21] Philip Watkins died aged 64 years at Trinity Hospice, Clapham Common on 1 June 1995.