Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy leadership contender for the Scottish Labour Party

James Francis "Jim" Murphy (born 23 August 1967) is a British Labour Party politician who is Member of Parliament (MP) for East Renfrewshire. Until 2 November 2014 Jim Murphy was Shadow Secretary of State for International Development when he stood down to face "the challenges of reforming Scottish Labour and battling to lead the party in Scotland." He was previously the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence from 2010 to 2013, and from 2008 to 2010 he served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland. Prior to this, he was the Minister for Europe from 2007 to 2008, the Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform from 2006 to 2007, and the Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office from 2005 to 2006. Murphy was also the co-chair of the Review of the Labour Party in Scotland, commissioned by Ed Miliband in May 2011.

Following the resignation of Johann Lamont as leader of the Scottish Labour Party in October 2014, Jim Murphy announced that he would be a candidate in the election to replace her. Murphy's leadership bid has failed to get any trade union backing and his detractors describe him as a right-wing neo-con, citing as evidence his membership of such groups as The Henry Jackson Society and Labour Friends of Israel.

Overruling MacAskill

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi wrongly convicted, Bernt Carlsson callously targeted on Pan Am Flight 103

On 19 September 2009, one month after Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill granted Abdelbaset al-Megrahi compassionate release from jail, it was reported that Jim Murphy had the power to overrule MacAskill's decision:

Gordon Brown's government could have used its powers under the Scotland Act to challenge the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, it has emerged. Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy could have overruled Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill and stopped the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi if the case was deemed to have breached "international obligations".

Senior diplomats have insisted there was a "clear understanding" between the UK and the US that Megrahi would serve out his sentence in Scotland. The US Justice and State departments have also insisted they had been given assurances in the 1990s that Megrahi would remain imprisoned under Scottish jurisdiction.

The disclosure angered the families of American victims of the bombing yesterday and fuelled resentment at the way in which the UK government distanced itself from the decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds, arguing it was a matter solely for Scottish ministers and the Scottish judiciary.

Andrew Mackinlay, a senior Labour MP, has now argued for the Scotland Act to be tightened to allow Westminster to override Scottish Government decisions if they have foreign policy implications for the whole of the UK.

"Since there appears to be a provision in the Scotland Act, it should at least have been examined," he said. "It is inconceivable that a Labour secretary of state or (UK) government ministers, including the Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary, would not have looked at this or at least asked the Attorney General for advice. Jim Murphy needs to answer why he did not use this provision."

The key part of the Scotland Act says: "If the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe that any action proposed to be taken by a member of the Scottish Executive would be incompatible with any international obligations, he may by order direct that the proposed action shall not be taken." It goes on to say Scottish laws can be revoked if "the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe (it) to be incompatible with any international obligations or the interests of defence or national security".

Mackinlay, who serves on the foreign affairs committee that is launching an investigation into US-UK relations and the impact of the Lockerbie decision, has also called for the Scotland Act to give Westminster the final say on any decisions affecting foreign policy:

"There should be a double lock on issues of national security and foreign policy," he said. "It would be inconceivable for such a decision to be taken by federal governments in the US, Canada, Germany or Australia."

Frank Duggan, president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 and a Washington-based lawyer, said:

"I didn't know there was a provision like that. I just wish that the British government had used it to overturn the decision, which caused us so much grief. But it is clear that the British government just didn't want to do that."

However, a spokesman for Murphy dismissed suggestions that he could have intervened:

"There were no national security implications (in Megrahi's release]. It was entirely a matter for Scottish ministers. There was no power for the Scottish Secretary to stop Scottish ministers making these decisions. Devolution gives the Scottish Government the right to take decisions and it is within their rights to take the wrong decisions." He added that there were no international obligations and no defence implications either from releasing Megrahi.

But Sir Christopher Meyer, who was ambassador to the US at the time of the Lockerbie bombing, last night said there was a "clear understanding" that Megrahi would serve his full sentence in Scotland:

"I thought the right thing to do was to let him fight his appeal in court, and the fact that he may have died was beside the point," Meyer said.

Megrahi, the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 in which 270 people died, was released last month from Greenock Prison on the grounds that he is suffering from prostate cancer and only has weeks to live. But his release has been followed by bitter argument, including over Westminster's reluctance to get involved. Last week, Labour's former First Minister Jack McConnell said the UK and Holyrood governments should have discussed the release because of the wide-ranging ramifications.

Controversies

In 2012 Jim Murphy was among a group of Westminster MPs named as benefiting from up to £20,000 per year expenses to rent accommodation in London, at the same time as letting out property they owned in the city.

On 3 July 2013, Murphy criticised the Unite union for "bullying" and "overstepping the mark" for allegedly interfering with the 2013 Labour Party Falkirk candidate selection process. The Labour Party later cleared Unite of any wrongdoing.

On 7 October 2013, Murphy was demoted to the post of Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.

Apartheid Jim Murphy

On 29 October 2014, Scottish Labour leadership contender Jim Murphy came under criticism for his alleged links to P W Botha's apartheid regime:

The only MP who wants the job and is remotely credible is Apartheid Jim Murphy. And this is a problem for Labour for a few reasons.

Murphy sits in Westminster. Given their two most senior folk already sit there, another one there wouldn’t really show that Labour is committed to Holyrood and takes it seriously, as Lamont spat (failing, incidentally, to recognise the only reason she’s at Holyrood is because Labour don’t take it seriously). So Murphy needs a seat in Holyrood. The only problem there is that there isn’t such a thing as a safe Labour seat in Holyrood – their largest majority is just over 3,000 and it isn’t difficult to see the circumstances under which Murphy could face such concerted opposition in Eastwood (the most likely seat in which he’d stand, given it mirrors his seat in East Renfrewshire and of which the current occupant is his familiar, one Ken Macintosh) that he would lose the seat in a Patrick Gordon-Walker style scenario.

This would leave the Labour Party leaderless over Christmas for a new election, probably into February. Not the best preparation for a May general election, the first since standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Tories against the working class and being soundly beaten in Labour heartlands across the west and central Scotland.

Other Murphy problems are more related to him as a person. For instance, it is generally acknowledged that the event which finally pushed Labour into their current condition was the Iraq War, which aftermath was partly responsible for its shattering defeat to the SNP in 2007, and failure to repent for its even more shattering defeat in 2011.

But Jim Murphy loves war. He was a cheerleader for the Iraq War. Did he know the British government’s "evidence" was a lie? I would suggest he ought to have done. He is a fanatical Zionist, who is a member of the shadowy Labour Friends of Israel group, through which he has developed some very worrying far-right friends in the United States of America.

And, of course, his past is shrouded in controversy. When his family chose to move to Apartheid South Africa in order to benefit from the racially-discriminatory system, condemned by the UN decades previously, he chose, as an adult, to remain at a private, whites-only school which banned black children from enrolling. His school was so extreme that it also produced Wouter Bassoon, the pro-Apartheid extremist who spent his career working at the head of a team developing chemical weapons for the Apartheid regime.

Murphy was so "distressed" by these experiences that, as he admitted at a raucous meeting in Shawlands during the referendum campaign, he took up arms and joined P W Botha’s South African Defence Force in defence of the Apartheid system.

A Zionist ideologue with a dodgy past. A war criminal. An expenses fraudster. A millionaire with shadowy US links. It’s just like Blair all over again. Let’s hope he gets it. A Murphy leadership of Labour would be the political version of Dignitas for them. This is Scotland’s chance to rid ourselves of an organisation which has been a malignant cancer upon the soul of Scottish society for a generation. An organisation which no longer reflects or looks like the working people of Scotland but is distinguishable only in terms of degree, not ideology, from the Tory friends they spent so long in coalition with against the people of Scotland. An organisation which is no longer wanted, or relevant.

Personal life

Jim Murphy is married to Claire (née Cook), a primary school teacher; they have three children. Murphy is a season ticket holder at Celtic Football Club, and captains the Parliamentary Football Team. He is a vegetarian and teetotal.