IAN MURRAY is still baffled as to why he was sacked as secretary of state for Scotland back in September.

The Labour MP for Edinburgh South since 2010, who went as far as taking part in rehearsals for the launch of Chuka Umunna’s failed Change UK Party in 2019, was rewarded with a seat at cabinet when Sir Keir Starmer entered No 10.

He was replaced by Douglas Alexander in the reshuffle sparked by Angela Raynor’s resignation, only to be offered junior ministerial posts at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology the following day.

Noting his wife thought him “massively under-appreciated,” he told Holyrood magazine: “The hardest part was the complete lack of any sort of recognition for doing a half-decent job. 

“The second hardest bit is having no explanation of why I was sacked. I still don’t have that despite me asking on a number of occasions.

“I didn’t think I deserved the public humiliation of it all. I genuinely don’t know why it happened and that feels like an unfair gap.”