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With a new Shadow Cabinet brief, Labour MP Ian Murray is busier
than ever before, but made time to talk to SCPO about his new role,
how he got involved in politics, and his recent humanitarian trip
to Gaza.
Edinburgh born and bred, Ian Murray remembers growing up in the
1980s and 90s in a housing estate in the city during the Thatcher
years. With parents who strongly adhered to the values of the
Labour party, it seemed a natural choice for Ian, who had long held
values of equality, social justice, the eradication of poverty, and
the importance of helping out those most in need, to join the
Edinburgh University Labour Club when he went to university. When
he turned 18, he joined the party, although this was not his first
experience of political activism; at school he had been very
involved in anti-apartheid campaigns, a subject which piqued his
interest in social justice issues.
However, rather than becoming a career politician ("I always use
the analogy of a 14 year old who is a world star at football: the
advice to that 14 year old is always go and get yourself an
education and a proper job first and if it works out for you it
works out for you"), Ian went out and got a series of "proper"
jobs. Indeed, he has turned his hand to a range of jobs, making a
CV which he describes as a "patchwork". Immediately upon leaving
university he worked in financial services, admitting that "I think
when I left university I had these starry eyed chasing the big
salaries and banking sector ideas and decided it wasn't for me".
Fortunately, he made his decision to change direction at the time
of the 'dot com boom', and established himself as a director for an
internet television studio, which involved running major events and
festivals. Although this company was ultimately unsuccessful ("the
'dot com bubble' burst") but Ian seized the opportunity and bought
out some of the contracts and set up his own events company, which
he continues to run: "we still do one in Bath every year... which
is good fun to get back to the reality of normal life." He also has
experience in the restaurant and bistro trade, taking over failing
businesses and getting them running as profitable businesses
again. All of this, Ian says, means that he has vital
experience which is valued by the electorate: "one, I've had proper
jobs, and secondly, I've been involved in businesses and in running
my businesses with staff, so you could never be accused of not
knowing the realities of making sure that staff get paid..."
In Labour leader Ed Miliband's most recent Shadow Cabinet
reshuffle, Ian found himself being appointed Shadow Minister for
Employee Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs, a job he therefore
feels well-equipped to take on. This remit covers a wide range of
issues, including the Royal Mail and Post Office, employment law,
unions, consumer affairs, competition policy, trade policy,
European law, Companies House, corporate governance, insolvency and
the Shareholder Executive.
Asking Ian about high cost credit lending, an issue about which
there has been a great deal of media attention, he predicted that
"I'm sure there will be legislation in the next year on this
because the Government has reluctantly decided that it is something
they should at least look at. If anybody's ever worked with Stella
Creasy (a Labour MP who has been championing the issue), she's
formidable; it's not going to go away. The pay-day loans, the high
street money lending vultures need to be reined in, because it's
creating misery for lots of families... What we need to make sure
is that it goes hand in hand with the reform of the banking sector
to make sure that people have access to basic bank accounts that
are free; people can have post office accounts that are free, and
really it will have to be an exercise in awareness to make sure
that people are informed... The Credit Union expansion has always
been something that everyone wants to do, but we've always found it
incredibly difficult but if one thing the banking crisis has does
is refocus people's minds on credit unions but also on different
ways of doing business; co-operative models, mutuals, partnerships,
all that kind of different kind of business. It goes back to what
Ed Miliband said in his conference speech, he talked about the
producers and the predators in business, and trying to produce a
new type of business ethics."
This is a subject about which Ian speaks passionately, but he
can see the other side of the argument too. Referring to shops
which offer furniture and appliances with high cost credit, he says
"there is a counter-argument that says, 'well at least people can
get access to the stuff they might need', but we need to make sure
we can regulate it so [these companies] can make a reasonable
profit as an operating business but within reasonable limits."
Because Ian has taken on this Shadow Cabinet team position, he
has had to resign his membership from the Business, Innovation and
Skills Committee in Parliament, but shortly before he finished, the
Arms and Exports Committee on which he sat as a BIS Committee
representative, published an important report on the regulation of
arms sales, which encouraged the Government to re-examine its
export licensing scheme: "the biggest issue is the sale of arms to
authoritarian and repressive regimes, and highlighted in the main
because of the Arab Spring in North Africa... The arms trade across
the world is completely abhorrent but its not an easy thing to
resolve. ... the trade will happen, so does the trade happen with a
gold-plated, well respected UK company that creates lots of jobs
and lots of economic output with good employees and highly skilled
in the UK, or do you revoke those licences and they go and buy
their stuff from some company based somewhere else in the world? I
fully understand the issue that we shouldn't be selling arms at
all, but the pragmatic reality of it is that would we better to
sell arms and control it and monitor it, than them just buying them
on the black market from somewhere else? I know I've been heavily
lobbied by the Churches groups on this. The new report that's come
out from the Committee is quite interesting on all of this, and
says that we should be limiting it. I think that I'm in full
agreement with that, but the problem is it's easy to say that in
hindsight."
Continuing with difficult international questions, Ian moved on
to discuss his recent humanitarian trip to Gaza. Having
developed an interest in the issue of Israel and Palestinian
relations from discussions with his partner Hannah and her family -
she is descended from Lithuanian Jews who were emigrating to
America but got off the boat in Greenock because the seasickness
was unbearable! - Ian was keen, when the opportunity arose with the
Council for Palestinian Relations, to see for himself the situation
in Gaza.
"I've been very keen to get away from the idea that this is a
political thing: just because I stepped foot in Gaza doesn't mean
that I think that everything that Israel or the Palestinians do is
wrong. We went on a humanitarian trip, and it quite obvious that
the blockade into Gaza is killing ordinary normal Gazans, and
particularly children, the ill and the elderly. I came back with
the view that, and I know this is a very simplistic way to look at
it, but let's set the politics aside and look at the humanitarian
impact of all of this." Ian recounted his shock at discovering that
languishing in Gaza is one of the most technologically advanced
radiology units in the Middle East, never used, because the
components are classed as having a dual use: "children are dying of
cancer because they can't get radiology, and patients can't get out
of the country to get treatment and if they do, they can't get back
in."
Crossing the border itself proved to be one of the more onerous
parts of the journey, even on the officially sanctioned trip: "the
Rafa crossing is supposed to be open; we were on a diplomatic
humanitarian mission and it took us 6 hours to get through it"
(following a phone call to the Egyptian Prime Minister's
Office). "I know it's all wrapped up in politics, but you
have an old woman, an old man, with a pregnant woman and her
husband and 3 young children in 40 degree heat, outside, trying to
get through a gate that should be open with all the necessary
papers to get back in, and it takes them 5 days to get
through. There was a convoy of aid from Scotland there. I've
no idea if it got in, but it sat there for 2 weeks. All it had in
it was medicines, but there were two items in the truck on a banned
list; and when they took them off the truck, the Egyptians changed
them to another 2 items."
Ian realises the challenges that this high-level political
situation causes for those having to live, day in, day out: "Fresh
water is an issue, because the Israelis are pumping in hundreds of
litres of raw sewage, and there's children getting very very sick
just by swimming in the sea, so they're trying to find ways of
purifying the water, but all of that is finely balanced. And of
course they can only purify the water if the electricity stays on,
and it rarely does. It was an eye-opener to see the impact of
politics on ordinary people, and the problem is, and this is where
we get to the crux of it, if it is the case that the Israel and
Palestinian issue will not resolved until Israel is comfortable
with security and the Palestinians are comfortable with the
settlement, then people who have nothing have no hope and no
future. It's easier for them to fire a rocket across the
border and kill a few Israelis than it is for them to have hope
about the future, and it'll be exactly the same situation in Israel
too, and it's how you break that circle. ..it just shows you the
power of how politics is all wrapped up in this, and as we speak,
new settlements are being planned and built. If you're a very poor
Palestinian living on food aid and no way of getting stuff into the
country, then you think 'well what's going on here? Who's
supporting us?' And if poverty is a barrier to peace, then the
barriers aren't been broken down, that's for sure."
At home, poverty is also on the agenda, with the Government's
Welfare Reform proposals filling up Ian's constituency mailbag,
specifically the concern amongst his constituents about disability
support. "the problem is that Welfare Reform has to be done in its
widest sense, and there's lots of disabled people who are on
benefits who want to work, and we need to find mechanisms of
providing them with support to do that, but you can't do that
without jobs." Ian questions the rationale of the government's
proposals in the current economic climate: "If a 35 year old
graduate with a huge CV can't get a job, how on earth can a
disabled person who's been out of the workplace for a decade ,
needing skills refreshed etc, supposed to get into the workplace
when jobs are at a premium? Welfare reform doesn't work without
jobs, but we don't have any, and the government don't look as if
they're in a hurry to give us any."
Having only been elected to Parliament in 2010, although having
many years experience as a local councillor, Ian has taken to the
job with great enthusiasm, and realises the position of trust he
holds within the community: "We do 152 advertised surgeries a year.
If a 72 year old woman comes in here and says I need you to help me
with the NHS, we'll sort it. She doesn't care if you're reserved,
devolved, …tall small, she just wants it sorted. And she'll have
come to you for a reason; she might feel comfortable coming here,
she's heard that we can sort things, or she was passing on the bus
and thought she'd just drop in." It is this willingness to
help which permeates Ian's work, and indeed is one of the reasons
he loves his job, because of the opportunities to help people.
When Ian gets a chance to have some time off, he tries to just
catch up with family and friends, and maybe gets to Tynecastle,
though that is a very infrequent treat. However, his
politician's instinct to never properly switch off from being
contactable is revealed when asked about what item he would take if
he was stranded on a desert island: a connected iPhone.
However, he would also use the opportunity to read 'War and Peace';
"I don't know anyone that's actually read it, but if I was on a
desert island it would force me to do so". As for who he
would take with him, "I'd say my partner Hannah, and ... I think it
would be wonderful to have spent time with someone who was involved
in some of the greatest stuff that has ever happened. I think
Mandela and Obama might be quite a good combination. Or maybe if
you're stuck on a desert island you should take an expert in rafts,
Bear Grylls or someone!"