Neil Findlay hits out at '˜insincere' Jim Murphy in new book

A senior MSP and colleague of Jim Murphy has dubbed the former Scottish Labour leader as an 'insincere' Blairite who would 'brief and undermine colleagues' to further his ambitions

Scottish Labour leadership announcement. Jim Murphy being congradulated by Neil Findlay.

In a series of memoirs to be published next month by Neil Findlay, the senior MSP blasts Murphy’s troubled, six-month leadership of the party in Scotland.

Extracts from Socialism and Hope – a journey through troubled times, by Neil Findlay, seen by the Sunday Herald, states that Murphy, “hasn’t a principled bone in his body” and gives insight into his thoughts during the independence referendum and the 2015 election which saw Labour capitulate. He also attacks Murphy’s leadership role as part of the Better Together campaign stating that he believes Labour should have kept distance from the campaign writing: “We should have had a strong Labour campaign, radical and distinct from the woeful Better Together effort, who appear not to have a clue what they are doing.”

Neil Findlay

Neil Findlay also reveals that the party had hoped supporters of independence would turn off undecided voters and that Jim Murphy would ‘milk’ events, such as getting pelted by eggs, to try and increase support.

In the diaries, he claims Murphy wanted pro independence supports to “behave like a rowdy mob so undecided voters will be turned off by it” and Murphy “is of course milking this for all its worth”, adding: “These events are getting worse and worse and the Yes mob who turn up are doing exactly what Murphy wants.”

Findlay, who served as Murphy’s shadow cabinet spokesperson also accused the former leader of using “every trick and manoeuvre” from “the Blairite recipe book” to plot against colleagues,

Neil Findlay

It is also claimed in the book from Luath Press that colleagues were not consulted on major policy changes, such as the call to end the ban on alcohol in Scotland’s football stadiums.

“He [Murphy] said that ‘because young, working-class men don’t like us we had to do something’. So the answer apparently is to get them all bevvied at the fitba’! He hasn’t a principled bone in his body. This is the type of politics people are rejecting.”

The book has a foreward by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, which describes the diaries as an “honest, frank and challenging” book.