Chris Murray (politician)

Murray is the son of Scottish Labour politician Margaret Curran, Baroness Curran. He grew up in Glasgow and attended Shawlands Academy. He then studied French and German at the University of Oxford, later studying at the London School of Economics and attending Harvard University as a John F. Kennedy Fellow. ==Early career==

Murray began his career as a political assistant to the Labour politician Harriet Harman, holding the role for two years. Harman later supported Murray's candidacy for Parliament and canvassed alongside him in Edinburgh. In 2014, he began working as an attaché at the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Paris. He stayed in the role for four years. He then served as an adviser on economic diplomacy at the OECD. After leaving diplomacy, he worked as a senior government relations adviser for the charity Save the Children and was a research fellow at the IPPR Scotland thinktank. Murray also volunteered as chair of the Refugee Survival Trust charity and served on the advisory council of These Islands, a thinktank. By May 2022, he was a policy manager for migration at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. ==Member of Parliament==

Murray was elected MP for the Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency at the 2024 United Kingdom general election. In July 2024, Portobello beach in Murray's constituency was closed for a period after high levels of bacteria were present in the water. Murray raised this due to concerns from constituents which attributed this to sewage, and said that it was "unacceptable" that people were unable to swim due to pollution. It was later confirmed by SEPA not to be a pollution-related incident. In March 2025, Murray raised the issue of Child Homelessness in Edinburgh at Prime Minister's Questions, after the charity Shelter reported that there were more children in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh than the whole of Wales. In December 2025, Murray raised allegations that Rockstar Games had unfairly dismissed 30 to 40 employees for Union Activity, which the Independent Worker's Union of Great Britain argued constituted union busting. Murray raised the case at Prime Minister's Questions after meeting with the affected workers. In response, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the firings were "deeply concerning" and said that the Government would investigate. In January 2026, after leading a debate in parliament on UK-French relations, Murray was announced as the United Kingdom's Trade Envoy to France. ==Personal life==

Murray lives off Easter Road, in Edinburgh. Murray is gay. ==Political views==

In 2019, Murray was a member of the advisory committee for the Labour for a Public Vote group. Following the poor Scottish Labour results in that year's European Parliament election, he called for members of the party to back another Brexit referendum. Murray has frequently raised the issue of Palestine in Parliament, in particular the issue of children in Gaza, the need for humanitarian aid, and the behaviour of the Israeli Government. In a July 2024 interview with The Student, Murray called for an "immediate and lasting ceasefire" in the Gaza–Israel conflict. In July 2025, he signed a letter calling for the UK to recognise a Palestinian State. In August 2025, Murray wrote an article for LBC arguing that the Government should not allow fossil fuel extraction at the Rosebank Oil Field, as it would increase emissions and harm action on climate change. ==References==