Murray doubles down on his new arts and tech roles in government

Former Scottish Secretary Ian Murray is looking to use his new dual role in government to make sure both the arts and technology benefit everyone.

- by Ian Swanson

Former Scottish Secretary Ian Murray is relishing the policy challenges in his new job

The Labour MP for Edinburgh South since 2010 lost his Cabinet post in charge of the Scotland Office in a reshuffle last September.

But after a backlash he was handed two new jobs the following day - as minister of state in two different departments.

In the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) his remit is the creative industries, media and arts. And in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology he is responsible for digital government and data.

"It's going really well, I'm really enjoying it," he says. "It's really policy heavy. The Scotland Office didn't have responsibility for direct policy in that sense, so I'm enjoying the policy side of it and they are two really interesting briefs.

"You can't get any more current than the media landscape, the BBC charter, the adoption of AI in government and digital ID."

And much of the work is directly relevant to Edinburgh.

"There's the film and TV sector, the gaming sector is very big in Edinburgh and, of course, the arts is huge. Edinburgh is the centre of the world when it comes to August in terms of the arts.