Ian Murray launches Labour deputy leader campaign

Scotland's only Labour MP will warn that the party risks “further alienating voters by turning inward” following its poor general election result.

Ian Murray will launch his campaign to become the Labour party deputy leader today, warning that the party risks “further alienating voters by turning inward” following its poor general election result.

The MP for Edinburgh South is expected to urge members to make the party a “broad church” again, and will promise to visit every region and nation of the UK if he gets elected in order to speak to voters who abandoned the party.

Murray is the only Labour MP left in Scotland following the 2019 general election.

His campaign launch will take place at Wester Hailes Education Centre in Edinburgh, which is where Murray went to school.

He said: Throughout my life, I’ve beaten the odds to succeed. And today, the Labour Party needs to beat the odds to win again.

“I want to change our party so that we can win power and transform people’s lives

“The Labour Party let down the voters of Britain last year. That can’t ever happen again.

“We must reach out and listen to every corner of this country and every type of person in our country.

“Our party can only win by winning support across the whole of Great Britain, and by becoming a broad church once again.

“Central to winning is building coalitions of people with different and varied interests. That’s what I’ve been doing my whole political life.

“And with today’s politics more damaged and fractured than ever before, we have a choice to make.

“Do we try to divide people and set them against each other? Or do we stay true to our Labour values and try to unite them around a common vision and a common purpose?I choose the latter.

“We must become a credible alternative government, not a party of perpetual opposition.”