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Meet the minister for selling the unsellable

Fraser Nelson

Wednesday, 13th February 2008

Fraser Nelson warms to Jim Murphy, the Minister for Europe, who is steering the Lisbon Treaty through parliament — and now promises that he would help Blair become EU President

Now we’re getting to it. Mr Murphy is the son of a plumber and a dinner lady, who grew up in a deprived estate boarding his wealthy constituency of East Renfrewshire. Being ‘poor in Glasgow’ politicised him, he says — along with ‘being white in South Africa’, where he lived as a child when his unemployed father went looking for work. When he stood in 1997 he expected defeat — and a safer seat next time.

Instead he took what was once the safest Tory seat in Scotland. It was a shock which, he said, left his wife ‘close to tears — and not tears of joy’. His first mission was to preserve his seat by what he calls ‘retail politics’ — supermarket surgeries, pressing flesh in railway stations and spurning Westminster. His tactics became, literally, a textbook case of campaigning. By the next election, he had made it one of the safest Labour seats in Scotland.

And this is what Jim Murphy does: sells the unsellable. First he sold Blairite reform to the NUS, then Labour to the Tories of East Renfrewshire and now the Lisbon Treaty to the public. ‘The reason why I was made Europe Minister is because I am a realist. I don’t come here with any great baggage or emotional attachment to Europe always being right — far from it. But I think that, if Europe can work more effectively, people’s perceptions will change.’

Might people’s perceptions change for the better if Tony Blair would stand to be European Union President? ‘He’s a big character with international recognition. I haven’t spoken to him to know if he definitely wants it. The Prime Minister of Luxembourg fancies it.’ But would he actually back Mr Blair? So far, Mr Brown has been cagey about this. ‘If he did want to do the job, I think he would be great at it and I would be interested in helping him make it happen.’ So, finally, a ‘yes’ from London.

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EyeSee

February 14th, 2008 1:15pm

And there you have it. Not concerned with the truth or outcomes, just how Labour are perceived and will they get re-elected. Lies need to be called lies Fraser, not Labour's view or statistics.

John Bickley

February 15th, 2008 1:44pm

I think the number of Polish children at his old school sums up Labour's problem. Europe is working for Europe (particularly Eastern Europe) not Britain. Labour has made it easy for UK citizens to stay on benefits (especially in areas where Labour controls the electoral seat). They're engaged in buying votes rather than reforming the benefits system and until they do that more Poles will come over here to do the jobs that Brits could do if they had no choice but to go out to work.

John, Basingstoke

February 20th, 2008 11:39am

A Scot born journalist praising a Scot born politician in charge of steering through Parliament the EU bill to deprive true born Englishmen of their hard fought liberties just highlights how the "Scot Cabal" rule and subjugate us south of the border as I see it. From "Brown the brooding,indecisive manic- depressive the unelected PM" to "Gorbals Mick" a travisity of fairness, balance and fiscal rectitude as the Speaker, to Des Browne, Darling, Murphy, Alexander et.al. the faceless Brown dominated Cabinet and all Scots who wield power through select committees. Your revenge for Cullondon and the Act of Unity is now complete. An England unrecognisable from 20 years ago through mass immigration, heavy taxation, abominable public services, funded by an incompetant administration staffed by career politicans with their snouts in the public purse greedily devouring vast expense claims of the most dubious nature including the Speaker the so-call guardian of Parliament for the people. They has squandered billions of our hard earned monies. How much lower can this system fall before a sysmic change takes place to counter the last disasterous 10 years. So much for me warming to this article and Jim Murphy

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