Jim Murphy to stand down despite surviving no-confidence vote

Leader of Scottish Labour announces he will go next month after party votes 17-14 in favour of him staying in the job

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Chris Johnston and agencies

@cajuk

Sat 16 May 2015 09.48 EDT

First published on Sat 16 May 2015 07.29 EDT

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Jim Murphy arrives at Labour headquarters in Glasgow ahead of talks over his future as Scottish Labour leader.
Photograph: David Cheskin/PA

Jim Murphy will stand down as leader of Scottish Labour next month despite winning a vote of no confidence at a party meeting in Glasgow by 17 votes to 14 on Saturday.

Murphy said he intended to use his final month as leader to prepare the ground for his successor and leave behind a stronger party.

“It is clear that a small minority who didn’t accept my election as leader of the Scottish Labour party just five months ago won’t accept the vote of the executive today, and that will continue to divide the party,” he said.

“It will be for the party executive to decide whether it accepts the reforms proposed, but a party in such urgent need of reform blocks those changes at its peril.”

Murphy made a pointed attack on the “destructive behaviour of one high-profile trade unionist”.

“One of the things about stepping down is that you can say things in public that so many people in the Labour party only say in private. So whether it is in Scotland or in the contest to come in the UK, we cannot have our leaders selected or deselected by the grudges and grievances of one prominent man,” he said.

“The leader of the Scottish Labour party doesn’t serve at the grace of Len McCluskey, and the next leader of the UK Labour Party should not be picked by Len McCluskey.”

Murphy said he would no longer seek election to the Scottish parliament as previously planned, adding: “It’s time for me to do something else.”

There had been calls for him to stand down after Labour was left with just one MP following a 40-seat swing to the SNP in last week’s general election. Murphy also lost his East Renfrewshire seat.

Some former MPs and MSPs claimed that Labour’s problems in Scotland existed before he became leader in December, but many trade union members had called for his resignation. Many union members had backed left-winger Neil Findlay in the leadership contest.

The Communication Workers Union told Murphy to go on Friday, while members of Unison have said that it was “unprecedented for a party leader not to stand down after such a defeat”.

CWUnews
(@CWUnews)
CWU calls for resignation of Scottish Labour Leader Jim Murphy following Party's performance in general election http://t.co/YU9E53xSZU

May 15, 2015

While Unison members stopped short of calling for him to resign, they would not oppose a wider call for a new leader.

However, leaders of the Usdaw union had backed Murphy.

Murphy was elected as Scottish Labour leader after Johann Lamont resigned, accusing the party in London of treating Scotland like a “branch office”.

Two members of his shadow Scottish cabinet – Alex Rowley and Neil Findlay – have resigned in the wake of the election result.

Rowley, who had been the party’s local government spokesman at Holyrood, argued that a “fundamental change in direction and strategy” is needed.

The MSP for Cowdenbeath also said it would be wrong for Murphy to lead Labour into next year’s Scottish elections.

Findlay, who had stood against Murphy for the post of Scottish leader, resigned as fair work, skills and training spokesman last Saturday.

Topics

Scottish politics

Labour

Jim Murphy

Scotland

Trade unions

news

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