Ian Murray (born 10 August 1976) is a British politician who has served as
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
The Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland is a member of the UK Shadow Cabinet responsible for the scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Scotland and his/her department, the Scotland Office. The incumbent holder of the office is Ian Murray. ...
since 2020, and previously from 2015 to 2016. A member of the
Labour Party, he has been
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for
Edinburgh South since
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
.
He previously served as a
City of Edinburgh Council
The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland.
In its current form, the counci ...
lor for the wards of
Liberton and
Liberton/Gilmerton from 2003 to 2010. Since
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
, Murray has been the only Labour Party MP representing a Scottish constituency and had previously been so from
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
to
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
. A critic of former Labour Party Leader
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
, in 2020, it was revealed that Murray was initially planning to defect from the Labour Party and join
The Independent Group
The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...
, which later became
Change UK
The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...
; Murray decided against joining the seven defectors and remained as a Labour MP.
Early life and career
Murray was born in Edinburgh, to a
cooper
Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to:
* Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels
Arts and entertainment
* Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads
* Cooper (video game character), in ...
father and shop assistant mother in 1976. Brought up in the
Wester Hailes
Wester Hailes is an area in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Wester Hailes borders on Kingsknowe and Longstone to the east. Bankhead Industrial Estate and Sighthill Park lie to the north.
History
Although named after a large private ho ...
area of Edinburgh, he attended Dumbryden Primary School, then
Wester Hailes Education Centre
Wester Hailes High School is a mixed non-denominational high school in Wester Hailes, in the South-West suburb of Edinburgh. The current principal is David Young and the roll is about 303. In addition to the school on the site, there is a swimming ...
. Upon completing his secondary school education, Murray read
Social Policy
Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society.
Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize soci ...
and
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
's
Academy of Government, graduating with an honours degree (
M.A. Hons.) at the age of twenty. While studying at university, he had a part-time job in a local
fish & chip shop before setting up and running a
pizza delivery service.
After graduation, Murray worked for
Royal Blind in
pensions management, before being
head-hunted by an Edinburgh-based internet television station (Worldart.com) during the
dot-com boom
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...
where he helped to build a new
online TV
Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...
station. Despite his efforts, the company ran out of funding and he was made redundant; he then founded his own event management business (100 mph Events Ltd). Murray also organised a
student exchange programme in
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
to fund school buildings and staff.
Political career
In 2003, Murray stood in the
local election
In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...
s for
Liberton winning the seat for
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
at the age of 27; he later represented the larger
Liberton/Gilmerton ward from 2007 to 2010.
Murray was returned for the
seat
A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense.
Types of seat
The following are examples of different kinds of seat:
* Armchair (furniture), ...
of
Edinburgh South at the
2010 general election. He served on the
Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee and the
Environmental Audit Select Committee
The Environmental Audit Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine how government departments' policies and programmes will affect both the envir ...
. In 2011, he was appointed to the
Official Opposition frontbench as
Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment.
At the
2014 Scottish independence referendum
A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side w ...
, Murray campaigned against independence. He claimed to have encountered hostility from independence activists and reported that his office premises had been plastered with pro-independence "Yes" stickers, which were immediately removed.
Murray was re-elected as MP for
Edinburgh South at the
2015 general election, with an increased share of the vote and an increased majority. He was the only Scottish Labour MP returned. He was appointed
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
The Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland is a member of the UK Shadow Cabinet responsible for the scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Scotland and his/her department, the Scotland Office. The incumbent holder of the office is Ian Murray. ...
on 11 May 2015 by acting Labour Party leader
Harriet Harman
Harriet Ruth Harman (born 30 July 1950) is a British politician and solicitor who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell and Peckham, formerly Peckham, since 1982. A member of the Labour Party, she has served in various Cabi ...
. He was re-appointed to the same role by new leader
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
in September 2015.
In January 2016, Corbyn made his first frontbench reshuffle. Three shadow ministers resigned in protest and were criticised by Corbyn ally
John McDonnell
John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...
as being part of a "narrow right wing clique" aligned with the
Blairite
In British politics, Blairism is the political ideology of Tony Blair, the former leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, and those that support him, known as Blairites. It entered the '' New Penguin English Dictio ...
Progress group. Murray, a Progress member, was interviewed on the ''
Sunday Politics Scotland'' programme on 10 January and criticised McDonnell, saying he should "ramp down the rhetoric".
On 26 June 2016, two days after the
EU referendum
This is a list of referendums related to the European Union, or referendums related to the European Communities, which were predecessors of the European Union. Since 1972, a total of 48 referendums have been held by EU member states, candidate st ...
, Murray
resigned with other members of the Shadow Cabinet, citing a lack of confidence in Corbyn's leadership ability to win a general election. He then nominated
Owen Smith
Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...
in his failed
leadership challenge against Corbyn. After Corbyn's successful re-election as Labour leader with an increased majority, Murray said he would only return to the frontbench if Corbyn's reinstated Shadow Cabinet elections and stopped using the threat of
deselection to enforce loyalty. He later accused Corbyn of being "all over the place" on potential Labour cooperation with the SNP. His replacement as Shadow Scottish Secretary,
Dave Anderson refused to rule out a deal with the SNP at Westminster.
Prior to the
2019 general election, Murray faced the threat of deselection when
Unite the Union
Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union which was formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). Unite is the second largest trade union in the UK (after ...
announced it would vote to trigger an open selection. Local members refused to back such a contest so it could not proceed. Following the election, he again became Labour's only MP in Scotland, but with a decreased majority of 11,095 while the party's vote share decreased by 8.5% in Scotland.
On 7 January 2020, Murray announced that he would stand for election to be
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in the
deputy leadership election. During the contest, he received the backing of former Prime Ministers
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
and
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
. Murray finished in fourth place and was appointed as
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
The Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland is a member of the UK Shadow Cabinet responsible for the scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Scotland and his/her department, the Scotland Office. The incumbent holder of the office is Ian Murray. ...
by new party leader
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras ...
.
In September 2020, it was reported that Murray had considered joining the breakaway group of MPs initially called The Independent Group (later
Change UK
The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...
), but pulled out at the last minute after deciding the move risked handing 'my seat to someone from the Corbyn wing of the party'.
Murray nominated
Anas Sarwar
Anas Sarwar (born 14 March 1983) is a Scottish politician who has served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region since 2016, having been Member of Parliame ...
in the
2021 Scottish Labour leadership election.
Personal life
Murray supports Edinburgh-based football team
Hearts and was previously Chair of the 'Foundation of Hearts', a bid by a fans' group to buy-out the club from
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
. He stepped down in May 2015 in order to focus on his parliamentary duties, and was duly replaced by the current Chair, Brian Cormack. On 20 August 2020, Murray's partner Mariam gave birth to a daughter, Zola.
References
External links
Official website*
Party profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Ian
1976 births
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Clan Murray
Councillors in Edinburgh
Living people
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Edinburgh constituencies
Politicians from Edinburgh
21st-century Scottish businesspeople
Scottish Labour MPs
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Scottish Labour councillors