'Big hill to climb' for Labour to win again in Scotland, says Murray

Labour faces big challenges to win the next Scottish election because of the "dire" economic situation and the country's volatile electorate, the Scotland secretary has said.

- Severin Carrell

Ian Murray said the Labour government and the wider party had to accept they had "a big hill to climb" to regain power in Holyrood in elections scheduled for May 2026.

He will tell delegates at the party conference in Liverpool that they cannot assume Scottish voters will deliver a landslide victory as they did in the Westminster elections this year unless Keir Starmer's government can prove Labour deserves it.

"The message to delegates is that we've come a long way, we've done exceptionally well, but the electorate in Scotland hasn't come home.

They've lent us their vote... to kick out the Tories and deliver the change that was in our manifesto," Murray said.