Jeremy Corbyn drafts in former communist Andrew Murray to his top team
2 min read
Former communist and senior Unite figure Andrew Murray has been hired by Jeremy Corbyn to help shape strategy as the party develops its Brexit stance.
Mr Murray, who is chief of staff to Unite boss Len MCluskey, will work as a consultant in the leader’s office for one and a half days a week and will continue to have his salary paid by the union.
The former Stop the War chair will sit in on senior job interviews and discussions on party strategy, including those on Brexit.
But Mr Murray’s appointment may cause alarm in some sections of the party given his previous hostility towards the EU.
One shadow cabinet minister told the Guardian he is a “lexiter” – meaning a left-wing Brexit supporter.
While another added: “I see him around in the leader’s office and it’s a puzzle what he’s doing there.”
In a 2012 speech at Labour conference Mr Murray compared the EU implementing austerity after the financial crisis to the Vichy regime in France during the Second World War.
“They said we’ll give you our power and we’ll take a step back so you can deal with the crisis,” he said.
“You can impose the economic measures which could be fatal to any democratic politician, and then you can give us back the power when it makes no difference.
“There’s no perfect historical parallels, but it’s more like the fact that the Vichy regime of the 1940s in France was established by a vote of the remnants of the third republic’s parliament, handing over power to a dictator because the democratically elected had lost the will to fight.”
He added that: “the politicians themselves have been incapable defenders of democracy”.
A Labour spokesman defended the appointment, saying it was “normal practice for trade union staff to be seconded to MPs’ offices – there’s nothing unusual about it”.
Mr Murray was a longtime member of the communist party, only joining Labour in 2016 after Mr Corbyn's election.
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