Sketch: Survivor Ian Murray takes on two jobs and riles the SNP

When Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, Prime Minister’s Questions was often a dull slog, particularly when his skills found their match in Theresa May. For Scottish journalists at Westminster, building up to that excitement once a month with Scottish Questions felt like a cruel joke.

Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray during the Labour deputy leadership contest

It wasn’t the fault of David Mundell, who had a good line in backhanded compliments and subtle put downs; in a one-on-one contest, you only need to be better than your opponent. In the majority of his time as Scottish Secretary, Mundell faced two English MPs - Dave Anderson and Tony Lloyd - and Lesley Laird, who lost her seat to a candidate Nicola Sturgeon told her own party not to vote for.

So for the first time in a long time, there was some anticipation around Scottish Questions as Ian Murray, barred for four years from representing the former Labour stronghold of Scotland despite being the only Labour MP left in it, returned to the dispatch box.

The shadow Scottish Secretary has survived political armageddon, twice. And he’s a Hearts fan. Once they’ve cracked the coronavirus vaccine, scientists should examine how and why the Edinburgh South MP still has a sense of humour.

He also knows something his predecessors (barring himself, the first time round) never really understood: to do the job properly, you have to get under the skin of the UK Government and the SNP. Scotland has two governments, and if Labour ever wants to get back into power, it has to take on both of them.

So Murray’s first question wasn’t about the UK Government’s coronavirus failings - most of which only have a direct impact in England - but about what he called the Scottish Government’s “catastrophic error of judgment” in not revealing an outbreak at a Nike conference in Edinburgh.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack recognised the opportunity he now has. “I fear he spent far too long in the wilderness that was the previous regime’s Back Benches,” he said in welcome to Murray.

And together, the pair turned on the Scottish Government and the SNP. “I believe that maximum transparency is important when it comes to matters of public health, because it is important that we treat the public as adults,” Jack offered, using one of Nicola Sturgeon’s own lines against her.

The SNP took the bait, with Pete Wishart criticising Jack and “his ‘better together’ shadow” for turning up to the Commons at all.

Murray said Labour would be “a ferocious opposition when we disagree” – if only Labour at Holyrood had that ferocity. But then, the MP for Edinburgh South is used to doing the work of a whole parliamentary group on his own.

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