Jim Murphy remains candidate for May’s Westminster election

It has been confirmed today that Jim Murphy, leader of the Scottish Labour Party will still be standing as the MP for East Renfrewshire at the General Election. After winning the leadership election last month, Murphy had made clear that he would seek election to the Scottish Parliament at the earliest opportunity, fuelling speculation that he would stand down from his Westminster role.

However, with Holyrood elections not taking place for another year, he has taken the decision to stay and fight this year’s General Election in the Westminster seat he has held since 1997.

Current polling suggests that Murphy’s seat could be vulnerable to the SNP – so what is the thinking behind the move?

Well, Murphy could have decided that with Scottish Labour facing such difficult challenges, standing down would look like he was ducking his first “big fight”. Doing that is not be in Jim Murphy’s character.

He may also have calculated that the risk of losing his seat to the SNP is relatively small: although he is the first ever Labour MP for the constituency, the Nationalists have never won it. Having turned it from a safe Tory seat into a 10,000 majority for Labour in 18 years, Murphy’s personal vote in the area might be what stops Labour losing there this year.

Finally, there is a year between the Westminster and Holyrood elections. It’s unlikely that Murphy would have been content with a year out from frontline politics.

This confirmation comes on the same day Murphy makes headlines for welcoming “the Vow delivered”. Earlier today the draft clauses of the Smith Commission – the plans which outline the further powers that’ll be given to Scotland – were published.

To mark this, Murphy has visited a work fare project in Edinburgh which delivers food donated by major supermarkets to organisations that seek to help disadvantaged people.

While visiting the project, Murphy said:

“This is the Vow delivered, a modern version of Home Rule. Labour and the other parties promised to deliver a Bill by Burns night and we’ve done that three days early.

“There are those who don’t believe the Tories will deliver on their promise. I can reassure them that Labour will, and the best way to bring more powers to the Scottish Parliament is to vote Labour at the General Election.

“The SNP are never satisfied but they cannot form a Government at UK level. They can shout at the Tories but only Labour can get rid of the Tories.

“I want to go further than Smith. I want to see the powers devolved to Edinburgh then devolved further to our cities and towns so they can develop local programmes to meet local needs.

“The current levels of youth unemployment are a scandal. Every day out of work for a young person is a day wasted and we’re anxious to get them into work programmes and on to full time employment. Only by voting Labour can the people of Scotland see that happen.”