No one saw Ian Murray’s sacking as Scottish Secretary coming. Least of all Ian Murray. “I am hugely disappointed to be leaving government with so much done and so much more to do,” he wrote in response to his firing. Knowing him, he will be gutted.
Murray effectively got the job because he was a cockroach (I mean that in a good way) – the only Scottish Labour MP to survive the SNP wipeout of 2015 and to keep his seat thereafter. He was, by definition, the senior MP when his party returned 37 seats in 2024. He is also pugnacious, fizzing with political drive, and seized the cabinet job with every bit of that energy. He and his big-brained deputy Kirsty McNeill have re-enlivened the UK government’s presence in Scotland after the moribund Tory years.
Politics is brutal, though. In retrospect, it’s telling that earlier this week Douglas Alexander, his replacement, was made co-chair, along with Anas Sarwar’s deputy Jackie Baillie, of Scottish Labour’s devolved election campaign ahead of next May. Alexander is a different type of politician: a veteran of the Blair/Brown years, a proven political strategist, a man who has run campaigns at a UK and Scottish level for decades, and failure has knocked some of the lordly New Labour edges off of him. That appointment seemed sensible at the time – what wasn’t clear was that it was a precursor for a change in Dover House.
It all makes some sense. Alexander is not always loved in Scottish Labour circles – after losing his seat to Mhairi Black in the 2015 calamity, he moved into academia, worked for Bono and took on various other international roles. When he decided to stand again in the 2024 election, in the all-too-winnable Lothian East, there were those who felt he was conveniently returning to a formerly sinking ship that had now righted itself. Where was he during the hard years, some asked.
But needs must: there is a brutal battle ahead. Sarwar’s Labour badly trails John Swinney’s SNP – by 20 points according to the most recent poll – with eight months to go. The Nats seem to be on course to secure a third consecutive decade in office, and Labour urgently needs to find a way to close the gap. Alexander has the track record and the intellectual capabilities to give them a fighting chance. He was an obvious candidate for the cabinet at the point of his re-election, but instead became Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security. That always felt like a holding situation.
For whatever reason – perhaps it’s obvious – Keir Starmer has decided that Alexander is the best man for the Scotland Secretary job at this sensitive time. It won’t be an easy brief. But he has decent material to work with. Sarwar is a charismatic, driven talent who has the shoulders for the role; there is a clear case to be made for change; Alexander himself is an avid student of global political trends who can help reshape thinking and tactics going forward. Starmer may have been planning this reshuffle for the autumn, and had his hand forced by Angela Rayner’s abrupt departure, but that doesn’t mean this won’t be to Scottish Labour’s benefit.
Another point: Alexander is one of the most eloquent and convincing advocates for the continuance of the Union I’ve heard. He thinks round corners, and there is a certain poetry to his take on things, which is uncommon to a cause that has largely relied on hard economics and grim warnings of devastating consequences. Support for independence remains around 50 per cent – the battle is far from over. His intellect has been missed from shaping the Unionist argument for the UK.
Douglas Alexander is back in the cabinet, and back at the Scottish front line – it’s what he wanted, and it’s up to him to deliver. He’d better do so, quickly.
[See more: Farage dances on Angela Rayner’s political grave]
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