I will battle to keep my seat at Westminster, vows Murphy
Labour leader’s shock bid to remain an MP - before he fights for a seat at Holyrood
JIM Murphy has announced he will fight to keep his Westminster seat at t his year’s General Election, despite promising to stand for Holyrood in 2016.
The Scottish Labour leader, who has struggled to transform his party’s election hopes, will put his name on the ballot paper in East Renfrewshire on May 7.
Having vowed to contest a Holyrood seat in next year’s Scottish election – or earlier – Mr Murphy had been widely tipped to stand down from the Commons.
Asking constituents to vote for him in the knowledge that he is unlikely to serve a full term is a high-risk strategy, and suggests he is too scared to force a snap byelection for a Scottish parliament seat, which could see him defeated by the SNP.
Party strategists had even discussed spending a year touring the country as an unelected politician to ‘reconnect’ with voters.
But party activists yesterday took to the streets of Neilston with ‘re-elect Jim Murphy’ signs.
After Mr Murphy’s advisers were alerted by the Scottish Daily Mail, the Labour leader was forced to confirm his intentions last night.
He has a commanding majority of more than 10,000 in a seat that was once a Tory stronghold. However, his main challenge i n May is expected to come from the SNP, with a new national poll putting the party on a massive 46 per cent – ahead of Labour on 30 per cent.
Should the TNS findings be replicated with a uniform swing across the country on May 7, the SNP would win three-quarters of Scotland’s seats – reducing Labour to a rump of 12 MPs, leaving the LibDems with a solitary constituency and wiping out the Tories. Mr Murphy would, however, hold on in East Renfrewshire.
The party leader told the Mail: ‘I am confident I can win. We have had a really good response on the doorsteps in recent weeks. I want to contribute to making sure Labour return to government.
‘Only Scottish Labour are big enough and strong enough to stand up to the SNP. The SNP want to give up the higher spending on our NHS and pensions, and replace it by gambling our public services on volatile oil prices.’
Mr Murphy was reselected as the party’s candidate in the seat in 2013, but has been under intense pressure since his leadership election victory last December to clarify his plans.
In January, a spokesman would only say: ‘Jim Murphy is the MP for East Renfrewshire and the candi- date. If that changes his constituents will be the first to be told.’
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme in December, Mr Murphy said: ‘I’ve given a commitment that I’ll be in the Scottish parliament in 2016 and Labour’s candidate for First Minister in 2016.
‘I’d like to be there sooner than that and in terms of how we do that and what we do, of course I’ll let my constituents know first and my constituency party know first.
‘But there’s a cast-iron guarantee to be a candidate in 2016 at t hose el ections, i f not before.”
There is nothing to stop politicians holding a ‘dual mandate’ and being both an MP and MSP, as Alex Sal- mond did between 2007 and 2010. The then-First Minister was criticised, however, for his poor attendance record in the Commons.
Mr Murphy has said that option is ‘not something I’m attracted to’, suggesting there could be a Westminster by- election for his East Renfrewshire seat in 2016.
It remains unclear which seat the Labour leader would contest in that year’s Holyrood election. The corresponding constituency – Eastwood – is represented by Labour’s Ken Macintosh, who is not thought to be willing to stand down. Other possible options include the nearby Motherwell and Wishaw seat, held by little-known MSP John Pentland with a slim majority.
Scottish Conservative candidate for East Renfrewshire David Montgomery said: ‘ The voters deserve better than an MP who has already got one foot out of the door. We also know that, if elected, Mr Murphy won’t be focused on representing the local interest of people here at Westminster.’
Meanwhile, the latest TNS poll has killed off Mr Murphy’s hopes that a previous poll by the firm – which said there was just a tenpoint gap between the parties – may have been the first signs of a comeback.
Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University, Scotland’s leading elections expert, said: ‘The truth is we are still looking for any solid evidence that, despite his best efforts, Jim Murphy has in fact made any progress in turning his party’s fortunes around.’
SNP candidate for East Renfrewshire Kirsten Oswald said: ‘Jim Murphy has a lot of explaining to do to the people of East Renfrewshire. With less than 70 days to go to the general election he has left this decision up to the wire – his dithering is a sign of weakness.’
‘I am confident I can win’ ‘His dithering is a sign of weakness’