UK leader, Ed Miliband, fully supporting him with the aid of the formidable Jim Murphy, the party entered the election campaign buoyed by high poll rankings giving it a clear lead. But with no serious change implemented


following the 2007 result and faced with an election campaign waged by the SNP based on a clear vision, a strong team and a good reliable record in government, Labour was simply outmanoeuvred, if not outwitted. Te loss of seats on 5 May was catastrophic. Te party didn’t just lose on the constituency


vote but also on the list and experienced politicians like Andy Kerr, Charlie Gordon, Frank McAveety and Tom McCabe were out. Teir leader, Iain Gray, was lucky to hang on to his seat and so the blame game began again. Gray immediately announced that he would step down as leader and at the same time Jim Murphy, MP for East Renfrewshire, former Secretary of State for Scotland and now shadow defence minister, was beating a path to Ed Miliband’s door to volunteer his services to conduct a post-mortem.


“Ed didn’t ask me to do this,” he says. “I


volunteered. Look, there wasn’t exactly a stampede to Ed’s door, let’s put it that way, but the party had got its worst result since the 1930s and I had watched Scottish politics from the sidelines for more than a year and I just thought me and others have a responsibility to get back into it. Tat’s why Ed asked me if I would do the review; because I volunteered. I knocked on his door straightaway and he asked me. Simple as that. “In 2007, and people take this as a criticism


19 September 2011 www.holyrood.com 19


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