Labour Minister Hits Out At Keir Starmer Over 'Humiliating' Cabinet Sacking

A Labour minister has hit out at Keir Starmer over the “public humiliation” of his sacking from the cabinet.

In a highly unusual intervention, Ian Murray said the prime minister had still not explained why he dumped him as Scottish secretary in his September reshuffle, despite being asked repeatedly.

Bizarrely, Starmer brought Murray back into government just 24 hours later by giving him junior ministerial roles in two different departments.

It is understood Starmer U-turned after his original decision to sack Murray sparked a furious backlash from Labour MPs.

Speaking about the circumstances of his sacking for the first time in an interview with Holyrood magazine, the Edinburgh South MP said: “For me, the hardest part was the complete lack of any sort of recognition for doing a half decent job. That’s the hardest bit.

“The second hardest bit is having no explanation of why I was sacked, and as we sit here today I still don’t have that despite me asking on a number of occasions.

“The third bit is that I didn’t think I deserved the public humiliation of it all. I genuinely don’t know why it happened and that feels like an unfair gap.”

Speaking about his wife, Murray said: “It’s fair to say that Mariam was absolutely fucking furious.”

“She was most angry about the fact that the prime minister didn’t have an explanation,” he added.

Murray is now minister of state in both the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology.

But after his sacking from the cabinet the previous day, he said he took five hours to consider whether to accept the two new jobs.

“My big questions about coming back into government were, why was it not offered to me at the time – and it wasn’t – why has the decision now been made and why?,” he said.

“If I’m not good enough for the Scotland Office, why am I now number two in two major UK departments?”