Leader of Unite union lays blame for Labour’s disastrous election result ‘very squarely at the feet of Scottish Labour’ and says Murphy should ‘leave the scene’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old



The leader of the Unite union, Len McCluskey, has blamed Labour’s general election defeat on the party’s Scottish leader, Jim Murphy, and called on him to resign.

McCluskey said Murphy’s leadership of Scottish Labour had made the Tory victory a certainty because it allowed Conservatives to play “the anti-Scottish card” in the closing stages, and provoke a backlash amongst English voters.

The Unite general secretary said Murphy “should leave the scene”.

Murphy faces a no-confidence motion at Scottish Labour’s national executive meeting on Saturday, with Unite and other critics of his leadership, including the rail union Aslef and several MSPs who opposed Murphy’s original leadership bid, struggling to build enough support to force him out.

Murphy’s aides insist he will survive, despite leading Scottish Labour to its worst ever defeat, losing 40 out of 41 seats to the Scottish National party, including Murphy’s own in East Renfrewshire.

The majority of MSPs, Scottish Labour’s sole remaining MP, Ian Murray, the GMB and Usdaw back him as leader, as do several other unions. But his supporters are now trying to gather signatures to an internal party letter giving Murphy their backing.

Scotland’s largest union, Unison, has stopped short of calling for him to stand down but said voters did not see him as “a credible messenger of Scottish Labour values”.

“It’s all the usual suspects,” said a senior party figure. “It shows the over-reach of Unite if they think they can blame the entire UK election result on Jim. It shows they live in a parallel universe.”

In an interview with BBC2’s Newsnight programme, McCluskey said: “There’s no doubt in my mind that the late swing in the opinion polls was as a result of the anti-Scottish card that was played by Lynton Crosby [the Tory election strategist] and the Conservatives.

“They must have thought that all their Christmases had come early. And we have to examine that. In my opinion, that has been a major factor in why Miliband is now not the prime minster and I lay the blame for that very squarely at the feet of Scottish Labour.”

A party source close to Murphy said: “People who never voted for Jim Murphy say he now has to go. They have no candidate [to replace him] and there is no vacancy, but they want to create a vacancy without a candidate. It’s wishful nihilism.”