As expected, Jim Murphy has announced he’s standing for Scottish Labour Leader. He’s given an interview to the Daily Record in which he says he wants to stop ‘the Scottish Labour Party from committing self harm’:
‘I think it is time for a fresh start for the Scottish Labour party,” he said. “I am proud of Labour Party and I am proud of Scotland – but I am not satisfied.
‘I want to strike a tone that stops the Scottish Labour Party from committing self harm. I want to unite the Labour Party but more importantly I want to bring the country back together after the referendum.
‘I am not going to shout at or about the SNP, I am going to talk to and listen to Scotland and I am very clear that the job I am applying for is to be the First Minister of Scotland.’
In his politics column in this week’s magazine, which you can read early on Coffee House, James considers Murphy’s suitability to lead the Labour party in Scotland. He says Murphy ‘has what Scottish Labour needs so badly: energy, no fear of the SNP and the ability to win elections’. The question is whether Scottish Labour knows what it needs, or whether it rather fancies a 1980s-style period by picking leaders who leave the party in its comfort zone and don’t manage to challenge the Scottish National Party. As James says, the decision the party makes is a decision about the survival of the Labour party overall.
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