Former ScotLab leader Jim Murphy brings Labour into disrepute by cosying up to the Tories
![Jim Murphy [Image: Herald Scotland].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/160912-Jim-Murphy.jpg)
Jim Murphy [Image: Herald Scotland].
First he did his level best to ensure that left-wing candidate Rhea Wolfson would not qualify for election to the party’s National Executive Committee by convincing her constituency members – falsely – that the Momentum organisation that supported her was full of anti-Semites. Ms Wolfson is Jewish.
Now he has held meetings with leading Conservatives, allowing members of the SNP – the party that swept his right-wing Labour out of all but one Scottish seat in the 2015 general election – to claim the ‘Better Together’ campaign is still “alive”.
‘Better Together’ was the campaign to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom, in the run-up to the independence referendum of 2014. Labour and the Conservatives ran a joint campaign called ‘Better Together’ (although a separate Labour-only campaign also existed), allowing the SNP to claim that the two parties were not opposed to each other at all but were closely allied.
Mr Murphy’s actions seem to indicate that – as far as he is concerned, at least – this is factually accurate.
The rest of us take a more adversarial view of the Conservatives. He has brought Labour into disrepute – but I bet he’ll still get to vote in the Labour leadership election.
Former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has been having cosy political chats with senior members of the Conservative government.
The arch-Blairite has held meetings with Scottish Secretary David Mundell and his Scotland Office deputy, Lord Andrew Dunlop.
A Westminster source suggested Murphy, who was a Cabinet Office minister, Europe minister, and finally Scottish Secretary under New Labour, had offered the pair tips on high office.
An SNP spokeswoman said: “It seems Better Together is still alive – even if it isn’t very well.”
Source: Former Labour leader Jim Murphy meets top Tories (From Herald Scotland)
ADVERT
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
It’s funny how the ‘Better Together’ campaign actually worked, whereas Jez’s strategy of promoting his own eccentric version of Europe and refusing to share a platform with the Tories was an abject failure.
You think ‘Better Together’ worked for Labour? How many MPs does the party have in Scotland as a result of that debacle?
I’ll tell you: ONE.
You seem to be a little confused, Mike. Strangely, Better Together wasn’t run for the benefit of the Labour Party. It was about keeping the UK together. It succeeded. Jez’s 7/10 enthusiasm for the EU and his 2/10 campaigning prowess helped contribute to the Brexit defeat. Let’s get real.
I knew you were going to say that. Better Together was indeed intended to keep the UK together – but of course no political party should go into such an endeavour with a strategy that will result in the loss of all but one of its Parliamentary seats in the country in question. That is what happened. The reason it happened is, the SNP was able to say that Labour and the Conservative Party were the same – or as good as.
That’s a failure. You get real.
As for Jeremy Corbyn – no. His campaigning prowess helped ensure that the EU referendum defeat was as slim as it was. Without him, it would have been much worse. Obviously.
Jim Murphy the as been shows his true colours a blue Labour hoping the tories will look after him for the deeds he as done for them
Merely confirming that he is the person that Scots recognised 2 years ago, contributing in no small part to the demise of the party in Scotland.