Chris Murray (politician)

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Chris Murray
MP
Chris Murray MP stood next to me 2023 (cropped).jpg
Murray in 2023
Member of Parliament
for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh
Incumbent
Assumed office
4 July 2024
Alma mater Oxford University
London School of Economics
Harvard University

Christopher Murray [1] (born 1987or1988) [2] is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2024. He gained the seat from Tommy Sheppard, a member of the Scottish National Party.

Contents

Early life and education

Murray is the son of Scottish Labour politician Margaret Curran. [3] He grew up in Glasgow and attended Shawlands Academy. He then studied French and German at the University of Oxford, later studying at the London School of Economics and attending Harvard University as a John F. Kennedy Fellow. [4]

Early career

Murray began his career as a political assistant to the Labour politician Harriet Harman, holding the role for two years. [5] Harman later supported Murray's 2024 campaign for Parliament and canvassed alongside him in Edinburgh. [6] In 2014, [5] he began working as an attaché at the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Paris. He stayed in the role for four years. [4] He then served as an adviser on economic diplomacy at the OECD. [5]

After leaving diplomacy, he worked as a senior government relations adviser for the charity Save the Children and was a research fellow at the IPPR Scotland thinktank. [5] Murray also volunteered as chair of the Refugee Survival Trust charity and served on the advisory council of These Islands, a thinktank producing research in favour of British unionism. [4] [5]

By May 2022, he was a policy manager for migration at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. [5]

Member of Parliament

Murray was elected MP for the Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency at the 2024 United Kingdom general election. [7]

In July 2024, Portobello beach in Murray's constituency was closed for a short period after high levels of bacteria were present in the water. [8] Murray attributed this to sewage, but it was later confirmed by SEPA not to be a pollution-related incident. [9]

Personal life

Murray moved to Edinburgh over eight years ago. Prior to his election as an MP, Murray lived of Easter Road. [10] Murray is gay. [11]

Political views

In 2019, Murray was a member of the advisory committee for the Labour for a Public Vote group. Following the poor Scottish Labour results in that year's European Parliament election, he called for members of the party to back another Brexit referendum. [12]

In a July 2024 interview with The Student , Murray called for an "immediate and lasting ceasefire" in the Gaza–Israel conflict. [13]

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References

  1. ↑ "Members Sworn". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . Vol. 752. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Commons. 10 July 2024.
  2. ↑ Nutt, Kathleen (16 February 2024). "Part Two: Who are the Scottish Labour MP hopefuls?". The Herald . Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  3. ↑ Swanson, Ian (5 July 2024). "General election 2024: Labour wins Edinburgh East and Musselburgh from SNP". Edinburgh Evening News. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 Nutt, Kathleen (16 February 2024). "Scottish Labour hopefuls: From the long serving to the rising stars of new New Labour". The Herald. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Morrison, Hamish (17 May 2022). "These Islands: Unionist think tank makes new adviser appointments". The National. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  6. ↑ "Canvassing with Harriet Harman - Labour Party". Labour Campaign Events. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  7. ↑ "Edinburgh East & Musselburgh | General Election 2024". Sky News . Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  8. ↑ "Government 'missing in action' on Edinburgh beach pollution incident, MP claims". www.shropshirestar.com. 12 July 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  9. ↑ "Tests show Portobello beach pollution not due to sewage". BBC News. 26 July 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  10. ↑ "About Chris | Chris Murray for Edinburgh". Chris Murray. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  11. ↑ "LGBT+ Members of Parliament". mps.whoare.lgbt. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  12. ↑ Murray, Chris (6 June 2019). "Scottish Labour's leader now supports a public vote. Let's back that decision". LabourList. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  13. ↑ Brooks, Aoife (2 July 2024). "In conversation with Chris Murray, Scottish Labour candidate for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh". The Student. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
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