Chris Murray is the Labour MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Murray won 18,790 votes, representing 41.2% of the vote. The Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate, Tommy Sheppard, received 15,075 votes (33.1%), while the Scottish Green Party candidate, Amanda Grimm, secured 4,669 votes (10.2%). Murray was duly elected with a majority of 3,715.

The Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency was newly created ahead of the 2024 election, largely based on the former Edinburgh East seat.

Political Career

Murray currently serves as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder. Although they cannot speak for the government in debates, a PPS is bound by collective responsibility and becomes part of the so-called “payroll vote”, expected to support the official line in all divisions. Murray was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Murray serves as a trade envoy to France (since January 2026). Appointed by the trade secretary, envoys are tasked with boosting British exports and attracting foreign investment. An envoy’s duties typically involve leading trade delegations, lobbying host governments on market access issues, and building relationships with overseas businesses.

In May 2026, Murray was among the over 100 Labour MPs who signed a joint statement insisting it was “no time for a leadership contest.” The letter was an intervention in the political crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s premiership, after Labour suffered heavy losses in the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru. It was organised as a counterweight to a mounting rebellion that had seen high-profile figures, including some ministers, call for Starmer’s resignation.

The statement read: “Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs.

“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.”

Murray is a patron of LGBT+ Labour – a socialist society formally affiliated with the Labour Party.

Murray has sat as a member of the House of Commons home affairs select committee (2024-2026).

Murray delivered his maiden speech on 25 July 2024 during a debate on the code of conduct and modernisation committee.

In it, he said: “While my constituency has many castles, theatres and museums, the most important building in the seat, indeed in Scotland, lies at the foot of the Royal Mile in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood…

“It is safe to say that relations between this parliament and that one have not been good these past 10 years. That must change. I was heartened to hear in the king’s speech an agenda that will address that, just as I was when the prime minister’s first visit was to my constituency.

“That speaks to a new era in Scottish politics of respect, constructive engagement and delivery, and I look forward to playing my part in it.”

He added: “This parliament is breaking new ground in how it represents modern Britain, not just in having the first woman chancellor, a woman deputy prime minister, and 190 Labour women MPs, but in having more minorities, more LGBT representatives, and more state-educated MPs.

“I am glad that in the latter two I am adding to the tally.”

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Murray was one of 175 Labour MPs who nominated Bridget Phillipson for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Phillipson, the serving education secretary, was widely viewed as the candidate favoured by Downing Street and the party leadership. She secured 175 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comfortably exceeding the 80 required to reach the final ballot. She was ultimately defeated by Lucy Powell.

Factional identity and party tradition

Living Standards Coalition: Murray is a member of the Living Standards Coalition. Established in July 2025, the group’s stated aim was to develop and promote policy ideas that directly reduce everyday costs for households, particularly in areas such as food, energy, housing and childcare. In an open letter published upon its founding, addressed to Keir Starmer, the MPs wrote: “Our constituents will ask one question at the next election: did this Labour government make me better off?”

They added: “To raise living standards, we support government interventions that will help to increase incomes and lower costs.”

SERA: Murray has been listed as a member of the Socialist Environment and Resources Association (SERA) – a socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. Founded in 1973, SERA is the party’s official environmental campaign group. The organisation campaigns on a wide range of issues, including renewable energy, biodiversity, air quality and the transition to a green economy. SERA describes its member MPs as “champions for the environment”.

Labour Movement for Europe: Murray was endorsed by the Labour Movement for Europe (LME) in the 2024 general election. Founded in 1981, LME is a pro-European socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. It campaigns for a close relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The organisation refers to itself as the “home of the pro-Europeans in the Labour and trade union movement”.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Murray voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Murray voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Murray voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Palestine

Palestinian recognition letter (July 2025): In July 2025, Murray was among the over 254 MPs to sign a cross-party letter calling for the government to immediately recognise the state of Palestine. The letter called on the prime minister and foreign secretary to recognise Palestine at the UN Conference then taking place in New York.

Before Politics

Murray grew up in Glasgow and attended Shawlands Academy.

Murray studied modern language at the University of Oxford and later obtained a master’s degree in European Studies from the London School of Economics. He attended Harvard University as a John F. Kennedy Fellow.  

Murray’s career before entering parliament centred on policy, research and advisory roles.

He was a political assistant to Harriet Harman from 2009 to 2012, which included a period when she was acting leader of the Labour Party.

He then joined the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, working as an attaché at the British Embassy in Paris (2011-2014). Subsequently, he served as an adviser on economic diplomacy at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Murray has described Paris as the “second-best city in the world after Edinburgh.”

Murray went on to serve as a senior government relations adviser for the charity Save the Children and as a research fellow at the IPPR think tank.

Personal Life

Murray is the son of former Scottish Labour MP and MSP Margaret Curran.

Curran, who was elevated to the peerage as Baroness Curran in January 2025, has held a series of high-profile political offices.

Murray lives in his Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency.

Trivia

Murray’s mother, Margaret Curran, is a Labour life peer. She served as a minister in the Scottish executive from 2002 to 2007 and later as shadow secretary of state for Scotland in the House of Commons (2011-2015).

Curran was shadow secretary of state for Scotland at the time of the 2014 independence referendum.

Curran also served as minister of state for energy security and net zero briefly in 2025.