Labour’s Scottish nightmare

Shadow minister Jim Murphy could become the Scottish Labour party's next leader – that's if the party survives. Emily Hohler investigates.

Jim Murphy, the shadow international development minister, is one of a "trio of hopefuls" contesting the vacant leadership of the Scottish Labour Party following the resignation of Johann Lamont, says The Daily Telegraph. But will there be anything left to lead?

An Ipsos Mori poll for STV News suggests that the Scottish National Party could "wipe Labour off the map" at the next election. The survey shows that Labour would poll 23% of the Scottish vote, leaving the party with just four seats in Scotland, while the SNP would poll 52%, giving them a projected 54 seats at Westminster.

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Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.