I can’t work with Corbyn
Scotland’s sole Labour MP tells how he is ‘uncomfortable’ with views of leadership frontrunner
SCOTLAND’S only Labour MP has revealed he could refuse to serve under Jeremy Corbyn if he wins the UK party leadership.
Ian Murray said he is ‘very, very uncomfortable’ with some of the views held by the Left-wing frontrunner in the race and ‘can’t commit’ to continuing as Shadow Scottish Secretary in such a scenario.
If he declined to stay in the job it would create a major constitutional headache for Mr Corbyn, who would have to find an English-based MP to fill the post – or allow Conservative Scottish Secretary David Mundell to be unopposed in the Commons.
Such a move would delight the SNP, which would claim to be the real opposition to the Tories.
It has already been warned that Mr Corbyn is likely to struggle to form a Shadow Cabinet, with possibly as few as 30 MPs willing to take jobs.
Dozens of Shadow Cabinet and spokesmen posts could be left empty, allowing the Tories free rein to push ahead with reforms without regular scrutiny.
Rival leadership contender Andy Burnham has said he would be happy to serve under Mr Corbyn, but key posts such as Shadow Foreign Secretary and Shadow Chancellor could go to maverick Leftwingers such as Tom Watson and Diane Abbott.
Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall are also in the running for the leadership.
Mr Corbyn managed to persuade only 35 MPs to nominate him and as many as a dozen of those did so only in an attempt to widen the debate.
Yesterday, Edinburgh South MP Mr Murray said: ‘I can’t commit to that one way or another because I’ve never had a conversation with Mr Corbyn about what his programme is.
‘I’m very, very uncomfortable with what he’s said about the IRA and those kind of issues. I don’t think that’s something I want to be involved in.’
Earlier this month, Mr Corbyn refused five times to condemn the IRA for its bombing campaign. He caused outrage when he invited members of Sinn Fein, including Gerry Adams, into the Commons in 1984, a fortnight after the IRA’s Brighton bombing that targeted the Conservative Cabinet.
Mr Murray said: ‘I’ll do whatever is in the best interests of the party. You don’t just do this because you want a position.
‘Mr Corbyn’s got to lay out what he wants to do and, quite frankly, some of his views are bizarre. People would have to think seriously about whether they could serve under him.
‘He’s going to ask his Cabinet to abide by collective responsibility, yet he can’t do it himself.’
Mr Corbyn has r ebelled against the Labour whip more than 500 times.
Mr Murray said:
‘One of the big questions for Jeremy is would he serve in a Liz, Yvette or Andy Cabinet? If the answer to that is no, how can he possible expect other people to serve in his?’
Mr Murray revealed he has not had a conversation with Mr Corbyn about the future of the Labour Party in Scotland but claimed he had tried to arrange a discussion.
‘Every other leadership candidate I’ve had a conversation about Scotland with,’ he added.
Mr Murray is backing Miss Cooper, ‘purely because I think Labour needs its first female Prime Minister’.
Asked at a recent hustings meeting in London if he would serve under Mr Corbyn, Mr Burnham said: ‘Yes I would.’
He added that he would ‘serve t he Labour Party i n any capacity’.
The only candidate who has explicitly ruled out working with Mr Corbyn is Miss Kendall.
She said: ‘I believe you need to have a serious and credible Shadow Cabinet with people who are prepared to take on the very difficult issues we face as a party, as well as inspiring our supporters with a clear vision for the future. We’ve always been a broad church but my politics comes from a very different place from Jeremy’s and it wouldn’t be right for him to be in my Shadow Cabinet.’
In Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Corbyn said people were ‘totally and absolutely and completely turned off by the politics of celebrity, personality, name calling, abuse and all that kind of behaviour, so I’m not really very bothered about what anybody says about anybody in our campaign, including me’.
‘Some of his views are bizarre’