Deputy leadership hopeful Ian Murray has vowed to take personal responsibility for wiping out antisemitism in Labour and ending toxic strands of bullying and intimidation in party ranks.

In a pitch for the deputy job, the former shadow Scotland minister said the buck would stop with him on tackling complaints of anti-Jewish hate and racism, sexual harassment and bullying.

Mr Murray, a long-time critic of Jeremy Corbyn, also called for an end to the vilification of dissenting voices and said Labour would suffer if the next leader surrounds themselves solely with allies.

In an interview with The Independent, the Edinburgh South MP said: “We need to rid the Labour Party of the cancer of antisemitism but it is much wider than that.

“It’s the bullying, it’s the intimidation, it’s the lack of tolerance, it’s the vilification – all of that stuff. I will take personal responsibility for that.”

He took a swipe at Mr Corbyn over the perceived failure to handle complaints of antisemitism, which prompted an outcry amongst Jewish groups and an unprecedented intervention by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.

“The lack of – or perceived lack of – dealing with it has made it worse,” Mr Murray said. “If the Labour Party can’t sort itself out, how can the people trust us to sort the country out?”

The straight-talking Scot made a last-minute decision to enter the deputy race but he has already cleared the first hurdle by winning endorsements from the required 22 MPs.

Growing up on a housing estate in a deprived part of south Edinburgh, Mr Murray never saw himself entering politics.

Official tallies put him in a distant second place behind shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, who is seen as the candidate to beat after taking an early lead in the five-way race.

Shadow cabinet ministers Dawn Butler and Richard Burgon are also closing in on the minimum threshold, alongside shadow sports minister Rosena Allin-Khan.

Mr Murray may struggle to beat Ms Rayner, but he describes himself as a “winner and a fighter”, citing his record of holding off the SNP surge that wiped out his fellow Scottish Labour MPs in 2015 and again in December.

The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Show all 8 1 /8 The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Keir Starmer The former director of public prosecutions undoubtedly has announced that he is standing for the leadership. He is highly-regarded by both left-wingers and centrists in the party. As Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, he played a key role in the party’s eventual backing of a second referendum. Before becoming an MP, he was a human rights lawyer - conducting cases in international courts including the European Court of Human Rights. Launching his bid, Starmer said that Labour must listen to the public on how to change "restore trust in our party as a force for good." A YouGov poll places him comfortably in the lead as the preferred candidate of 36% of party members EPA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Lisa Nandy Wigan MP Lisa Nandy has announced she wil stand for the leadership. In a letter to the Wigan Post she said she wanted to bring Labour "home" to voters in its traditional strongholds who have abandoned the party. Nandy went on to say that she understands "that we have one chance to win back the trust of people in Wigan, Workington and Wrexham." A YouGov poll shows that Nandy is the first preference for 6% of partymembers. Getty The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Rebecca Long Bailey A key ally of the current left-wing leadership of the party, the Salford & Eccles MP is viewed in some quarters as the natural successor to Mr Corbyn and describes herself as a “proud socialist”. Highly regarded by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. She won also won plaudits for her performance filling in for Corbyn both at prime minister’s questions and during the general election debates. The shadow business secretary grew up by Old Trafford football ground and began her working life serving at the counter of a pawn shop. Launching her leadership bid, Long Bailey said the party needs to make the positive case for immigration as a "positive force." She also broke with Corbyn over Trident, saying "If you have a deterrent you have to be prepared to use it." PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Angela Rayner - Deputy leadership Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has joined the contest for deputy leadership of the party. After ruling herself out of running for the leadership, the Ashton-under-Lynne MP launched her bid for deputy warning that Labour faces the "biggest challenge" in its history and must "win or die." She is close with leadership contender Rebecca Long Bailey PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Rosena Allin-Khan - Deputy leadership Shadow sport minister Rosena Allin-Khan said Labour need to listen with "humility" to lost voters as she launched her bid for the deputy leadership. Writing in The Independent, the MP for Tooting refelcted: "We shouldn’t have ignored the warning signs in Scotland, and now we’ve paid the price in northern England, across the midlands and in Wales." PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Dawn Butler - Deputy leadership Shadow women and equalities secretary Dawn Butler was first to announce her bid for the deputy leadership. The Brent Central MP has served in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet since 2016 PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Ian Murray - Deputy leadership Labour's only MP in Scotland said that the architects of the party's "catastrophic failure" in the December election can not be allowed to lead the party forward PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Richard Burgon - Deputy leadership Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon is standing as a continuity candidate, flaunting his loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn and saying it is wrong to blame the current leader for the election defeat PA

As the party’s only Scottish MP, Mr Murray said he had track record of beating the odds and his appointment would send a message on Labour’s intention to reach out into its former heartlands, in both the north of England and Scotland.​

Mr Murray said: “Part of my pitch is that Scotland’s voice has to be heard at the top of the UK Labour Party. Not just because it’s Scotland… it’s a much wider issue than that.

“It sends out the message to the whole of the UK and every single region and nation of the UK, that the UK Labour Party is listening and taking them seriously.”

Mr Murray said he wanted to overhaul party structures to hand power back to the regions, to allow people in Lincolnshire, Cornwall, Cumbria and elsewhere to take the fight back to the Tories.

Labour’s sluggishness to take a position of Brexit and Scottish independence were at the heart of its electoral drubbing, he said, as well as its “wish list” manifesto that the public did not believe.

He said: “When you stand in the middle of the road on two big constitutional issues, you don’t win. You get knocked over.”

A prominent advocate for a Final Say referendum, Mr Murray said Labour must now fix its firepower on preventing a no-deal Brexit at the end of the year.

When pressed, he would not rule out campaigning to rejoin the EU but only if the public support was there.

He said: “If the future looks terrible then we will have to do something to save the country. That might be renegotiating a much better and closer relationship with the EU in the future, it may be that we have a debate about whether or not we want to be a member.”

Labour must be clear that it opposes Scottish independence, he said, as he condemned leadership hopeful Clive Lewis’s suggestion that the party would back another referendum.

Mr Murray said: “If leadership [contenders] want to open their mouths and let their stomachs rumble about big constitutional issues they genuinely know nothing about – because they told me they know nothing about it – the Labour membership can decide whether they want them to be leader of the Labour party.”

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In a plea to leadership candidates, he said Labour must move on from the Corbyn years or risk another election disaster.

He said: “The next leader of the Labour Party has one of two choices – to turn the Labour Party into a credible alternative government, or to keep the Labour Party as a party that will just be in perpetual opposition.

“Continuity means we are ignoring the public and if we ignore the public we will get the same result again.”