Ian Murray survived when Scottish Labour collapsed around him. After the SNP landslide of 2015, he was Labour’s only Scottish MP. He held Edinburgh South again in 2017 and 2019, even as the party lost ground elsewhere. That electoral durability gave him an authority inside Labour that was larger than his formal power.

He served briefly under Jeremy Corbyn but resigned as shadow Scottish secretary after the 2016 EU referendum, saying Corbyn could not lead Labour to victory. Murray backed Owen Smith’s unsuccessful challenge and refused to return to Corbyn’s front bench without changes to how the shadow cabinet operated.

His politics sat firmly within Labour’s anti-Corbyn wing. Gordon Brown and Tony Blair backed his unsuccessful campaign for the deputy leadership in 2020. Keir Starmer then returned him to the Scottish brief, where Murray helped rebuild the party’s Westminster operation alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

The recovery arrived at the 2024 general election. Labour won 37 of Scotland’s 57 constituencies, having held only one at the previous election. Murray became Scotland secretary.

What he stands for

Murray represents Labour’s pro-union, socially liberal and economically moderate tradition. He opposed Scottish independence, rejected cooperation with the SNP as a route to power and argued that Labour had to replace nationalism with practical economic benefits from the United Kingdom.

His central claim was that the Scotland Office should do more than defend the constitutional settlement. Before entering government, he promised to turn it into a department capable of directing investment, promoting Scottish exports and making Westminster’s presence more visible.

That approach treated devolution as a competition over delivery. Murray supported stronger cooperation with the Scottish Government but did not accept that Holyrood should control every programme affecting Scotland. His answer to the SNP was more direct UK government spending, not greater Scottish autonomy.

Record as Scotland secretary

Murray changed the purpose of the Scotland Office. It acquired spending powers and a direct role in local growth funding. By July 2025, the UK government said £1.7 billion was attached to local growth projects across Scotland. Much of this was wider government funding rather than money personally created by Murray, but he did secure a larger delivery role for his department.

He also obtained £3 million for “Brand Scotland”, intended to promote Scottish products, culture and investment through Britain’s diplomatic and trade networks. The money was secured, and initial partnerships were signed. No published evaluation had shown how much additional investment, trade or employment it generated.

Murray helped oversee the establishment of publicly owned Great British Energy in Scotland. The company fulfilled Labour’s promise to locate its headquarters in Aberdeen. He did not personally design its investment programme, and Labour’s claims that its energy plans would create tens of thousands of Scottish jobs remained forecasts rather than completed results.

His other achievement was less measurable but still real. Relations between Westminster and the Scottish Government became more businesslike after years of constitutional conflict. Murray reopened regular contact and avoided treating every disagreement as another independence dispute.

The limitation was obvious. He was mostly a coordinator and advocate for decisions taken elsewhere in government. He controlled neither Scottish public services nor the Treasury. Higher funding settlements, energy investment and employment legislation were collective government decisions. His direct legacy amounted to a reworked Scotland Office, a small promotional budget and improved intergovernmental relations.

Removal from office

Starmer dismissed Murray as Scotland secretary in September 2025 and replaced him with Douglas Alexander. Murray was offered a junior ministerial position covering the creative industries and technology shortly afterwards.

The handling was shoddy. Murray later said the dismissal had been humiliating and that he had not been told why it happened. He nevertheless accepted the new post.

As creative industries minister, Murray fronted funding and finance programmes, including an additional £27 million round for regional creative clusters and a wider £500 million research and innovation package. These were funding commitments rather than results. When Andy Burnham became prime minister in July 2026, Murray kept a ministerial post in the reshaped culture, media and digital department, though the technology side of his brief was broken up as the science department was abolished.

The political recovery in Scotland also failed to last. At the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, Labour fell to 17 seats, its worst Holyrood result, and tied with Reform UK while the SNP secured a fifth term. Murray was no longer Scotland secretary, and Anas Sarwar led the campaign, but the defeat badly weakened the argument that Labour’s 2024 Westminster victory represented a settled Scottish revival.

Capability

Murray proved that he could hold a difficult constituency and preserve Labour’s Scottish voice during its weakest period. He later helped convert the party’s recovery into a large Westminster victory. Those are substantial political achievements.

His ministerial record is thinner. He gave the Scotland Office a more active purpose and secured money for it, but there is little evidence that his programmes produced measurable economic change. Great British Energy was established, yet its larger employment promises had not been delivered. Brand Scotland had funding but no published return.

Murray is a capable party operator and defender of the union. He has not shown the same strength as a minister responsible for practical results. His promotion was supported by his electoral record; his short and unexplained tenure in the Cabinet left too little behind to establish a comparable record in government.