Scots MP ponders deputy leader bid

Labour’s only Scottish MP is “exploring the possibilities” of running to be the party’s next deputy leader.

Ian Murray has written to fellow MPs in the Labour Party seeking their opinion.

With the party seeking a new UK leader and deputy following Jeremy Corbyn’s second general election defeat, Mr Murray declared: “I know how to build large coalitions of voters to win and that is what the Labour Party has to do again.”

In a letter seen by PA, he sets out his pitch, pledging to help reform the party and insisting Labour must “grasp the nettle of major constitutional reform”.

Work in this area can start while the party is in opposition, he argues, saying if he becomes deputy leader he will take personal responsibility for setting up a UK-wide constitutional convention “that looks at how we govern the UK from the former coalfield town and metropolitan city regions to the rural areas and our four nations”.

Mr Murray, a prominent supporter for the UK staying in the European Union, has been a vocal critic of Mr Corbyn, with the Edinburgh South MP surviving a bid to deselect him as Labour candidate for the constituency in the run-up to the general election.

He said he is considering running because “constitutional and nationalist issues are engulfing our politics”, with Mr Murray insisting he has experience of dealing with both.

However, he said: “The Labour Party has ducked this issue for too long.

“English nationalism from the Tories and Scottish nationalism from the SNP are squeezing the Labour Party, and we must stop it. “

Mr Murray said Labour needed a “strong Scottish anchor” to show that “everyone knows that Scotland is taken seriously by the UK party”.

Picture: PA.