Firebrand union boss: ‘I blame Murphy’
MILITANT union boss Len McCluskey last night blamed Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy for the party’s crushing defeat in the General Election.
The Unite chief, whose union bankrolled Ed Miliband’s campaign, said Mr Murphy should ‘leave the scene’, while the union’s Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said he should ‘do the decent thing and resign’.
In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight, Mr McCluskey said: ‘I lay the blame very squarely at the feet of Scottish Labour. We have to say to the Scottish people, “We’re sorry for letting
you down, for making you feel abandoned and Scottish Labour is under new management”. I think Jim and his colleagues should just leave the scene.’
His comments came as firebrand union bosses wrote to members of the Scottish Labour executive to encourage them to back a vote of no confidence in Mr Murphy, who lost his seat in last week’s election.
But the former Scottish Secretary remains confident that he can see off the challenge. He won the backing of the Community steel workers’ union last night. General secretary Roy Rickhuss said: ‘Now is not the time for self-indulgent political point-scoring and internal wrangling.’
Meanwhile, a number of ‘future Labour stars’ could be launched into Holyrood at the next election in a desperate bid to revive the party’s fortunes. Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson is among those being touted for a place on the regional top-up list system.
Senior Labour figures also hope to per- suade five former MPs to consider entering Holyrood: ex-deputy leader Anas Sarwar, ex-Shadow Pensions Minister Gregg McClymont, Jim Murphy’s former parliamentary private secretary Pamela Nash, former Shadow Defence Minister Gemma Doyle and ex-Shadow Energy Minister Tom Greatrex.
Mr Murphy’s supporters want him to force through a change in the rules, which would enable sitting MSPs ‘protected’ on the regional top-up lists for next year’s Holyrood election, such as Hanzala Malik and Anne McTaggart, to be dumped.