James Murray is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Ealing North, having first been elected to parliament at the 2019 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Murray won 20,663 votes, representing 47.8% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Maria Khan, received 8,144 votes (18.8%), while the Green Party candidate, Natalia Kubica, secured 4,056 votes (9.4%). Murray was duly elected with a majority of 12,519 votes.

The Ealing North constituency is located in West London and includes areas such as Greenford, Northolt, and Perivale. Historically a marginal seat, it has become safe Labour territory since 1997.

Political Career

Murray currently serves as financial secretary to the Treasury and paymaster general. He was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Murray served in cabinet as secretary of state for health and social care from May to July 2026. His appointment followed Wes Streeting’s sensational resignation in the wake of the May 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru.

Murray served as chief secretary to the Treasury (2025-2026), having been appointed to this role in the September 2025 ministerial reshuffle, and as exchequer secretary to the Treasury from July 2024 to September 2025.

Prior to the 2024 general election, which saw Labour returned to power after 14 years in opposition, he served as shadow financial secretary to the Treasury from October 2020 until the July 2024 general election. He was briefly an opposition whip from April to October 2020.

Murray was a member of the House of Commons public accounts committee (2024-2025) and the health and social care committee (2020-2020).

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

Murray delivered his maiden speech on 16 January 2020 during a debate on health and social care.

In it, he said: “Our part of London is home to communities from India, Pakistan, Poland, Ireland, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, and many more besides. It is home to LGBT+ people building their lives and their families.

“It is home to people of all faiths who have invited me in, at St Mary’s, St Barnabas, St Stephen’s, Ealing Gurdwara, Shree Jalaram Mandir, the Greenford Central and Bilal Masjid mosques, the Ealing Liberal Synagogue, All Hallows, Holy Cross and many more besides.”

He added: “I will fight for the health and social care system that we need, which is something that the people I represent so clearly and dearly want. It is also very personal for me. In the late 2000s, I was diagnosed with a rare, long-term neurological condition called myasthenia gravis. It causes muscle weakness, which made it difficult, or sometimes impossible, for me to do things like go running, speak at length or smile.

“But the NHS came to my rescue. My wonderful consultant and all his colleagues got me through a major operation and on to a painstakingly calibrated set of medications. I have been symptom-free since the early 2010s, and I will fight every day for our NHS with the strength that it has given me back.”

Before entering parliament, Murray served as deputy mayor of London for housing and residential development under Sadiq Khan from 2016 to 2019. Prior to this, he was a Labour councillor for Barnsbury ward on Islington London Borough Council from 2006 to 2016, serving as executive member for housing and development from 2010.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

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.

Labour leadership 2020: Murray was one of 22 Labour who nominated Emily Thornberry for the party’s leadership in early 2020. The election was triggered by the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn following the party’s defeat in the 2019 general election, which resulted in Labour’s fewest seats in the House of Commons since 1935.

Thornberry, then the shadow foreign secretary, was one of five candidates to reach the second stage of the contest. However, she was eliminated from the race on 15 February 2020 after failing to secure the required 33 nominations from Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) or three affiliated groups. This left Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Lisa Nandy as the three candidates on the final membership ballot.

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.

Before Politics

James Stewart Murray was born in Hammersmith, London on 13 July 1983.

Murray studied philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Wadham College, Oxford.

Personal Life

Murray lives in West Ealing, London with his husband Tom Griffiths.

In 2024, PinkNews listed Murray among a number of out LGBTQ+ parliamentarians.

He was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis in the late 2000s – a condition which leads to skeletal muscle weakness. He was treated for this at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, and is now symptomless.

Murray’s mother was a Labour councillor for Cleveland ward in Ealing from 2014 until 2018.

Trivia

Before entering frontline politics, Murray worked as a parliamentary researcher for Labour MP Emily Thornberry.