I'm not your typical Tory, I will take a pay cut to be a Glasgow MSP
He used to be in the SNP and he is tattooed from below the neck down.
After spending time in the forces, working in London, and enjoying a well-paid career with a multinational company, Murray now wants to be a Glasgow MSP.
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He has been selected as the party's candidate for Shettleston and Baillieston at the Scottish Parliament elections next year, and he hopes to secure a prominent spot on the regional list.
It's a tall order, but Murray says he is up for the challenge.
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The 32-year-old tattooed Tory has undergone a dramatic shift politically from being an independence-supporting SNP member.
He explained his reasoning.
He said: 'I began to question things more as I got older.
"For my whole adult life, the SNP has been in Government in Scotland.
'Being in London for a time played a part. I saw opportunities there that were not afforded to people here.
'The constant push for a second referendum turned me off and finally the progressive taxation policy. My colleagues who live in England pay less tax than me.
'I am not against the well off paying more tax but we need to define what better off is. Earning £40 to £43k a year is not rich.'
Growing up in Ayrshire, his parents, he said, 'were of the 'F**k the Tories generation'. But he takes a different view
He said: 'The Tories are the party of if you work hard, you should keep more of your money and not be punished.'
The difference between the Scottish and English tax policies is a big bugbear for him,
He said: '£40,000 is not a lot to start taxing people at a higher rate.'
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Murray thinks too many politicians are out of touch with the people.
He said: 'I find politicians frustrating. Normal working people are not represented, it is the same suits who don't represent working people.'
While he has a very well-paid job now, he said: 'I know what it's like to wonder if you can afford nappies.'
He wants people to know more about him and who he is and why he thinks he could represent them.
Murray said: 'I started work in a sawmill in Ayrshire
"I moved to Glasgow last year and I am based here now and spend some time in London."
He said he will take a wage cut. It would be a £20k wage cut to be an MSP just now.
He said he will go further and take only the Living Wage as an MSP.
He said: "To put my money where my mouth is, I've committed to giving away the majority of the MSP salary to local Glasgow charities, and instead living off the national living wage.
"If I say I'm for the working class, then I should live like one too."
Murray said: 'How can you understand what life is like for people if you haven't lived it.
'I spent four years in the army, I was in Cyprus for a time."
After leaving the army, he said he got a job in a Sawmill in Irvine and became a trainee manager in forestry.
He added: "My employer paid for my degree. Everyone needs a lucky break."
He said personal circumstances also shaped his views.
He said: 'My son died aged four from a brain condition.
'The midwives, doctors and nurses in the NHS were incredible but the NHS needs help.
"My son's mother is Congolese and she came here as a refugee."
He has concerns over the tone and nature of political debate, especially around immigration.
Murray said: 'The mother of my son is a refugee. I don't like the racist undertones in political debate.
'We need to take the toxicity out of the immigration debate.'
A striking feature is his body art.
He said: 'It started when I was in the army and I kept it going for 12 years. Now there's no space left for anymore.
'I like having them but I hate getting them done. I have to use numbing cream.
He has LIFE and HOPE inked on his fingers. A quote he said his gran often used 'where there's life there's hope'.
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The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
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'I hated how Sandie Peggie's daughter was used against her'
Jackie Baillie has sized up the situation too and moves across to exchange greetings with him. This jocund character is a constituent and he recognises her immediately, delighted that his MSP, the deputy leader of Scottish Labour, is giving him the time of day. I've been trying all morning to bring out the 'designated b****** in Ms Baillie, this being the locution Anas Sarwar once coined for her. He'd said it with a twinkle in his eye, but several Labour politicians and party retainers might have experienced a chill. Almost everyone involved in Scottish politics has, at some point, asked the question I'm about to raise with her: why did you never want to be leader of Labour in Scotland? It would have been there for the taking if she'd really wanted it. The party had turned to her twice to steady the ship when the leader's chair was temporarily vacant. She's possessed of a formidable political intellect which puts her in the Champions League bracket of UK politicians, so she could have done the job no danger. 'People should know their own limitations,' she says. 'I've never really been comfortable about some of the public-facing stuff. I'm not delusional about what I can and can't do.' I'm not buying that, though. 'Come on, Jackie: look at some of the clowns who currently hold down cabinet positions in Scotland.' She'll say only that there are a lot of people on the SNP's backbenches who 'have struggled to make a contribution'. 'You mean they're as thick as sauce,' is how I'm putting it. 'I'm not saying that,' she laughs in mock outrage. She pledges her support for Anas Sarwar as leader and, to be fair, they work well together when I've seen them out and about. 'Anas is probably one of the best leaders we've had. He is our real opportunity to do something this time round. He does a lot of front-facing stuff because he's good with people, both in the party and beyond. 'I love my constituents, I want to spend most of my time here with them. I'm rooted here. I'd much rather be behind the scenes getting things done: it suits me and I'm good at it.' Read more by Kevin McKenna: If you were being unkind though, you might suggest that this is just code for knowing where the bodies are buried, principally because most of them are buried in her back garden. 'I know I have a reputation for being as hard as nails and that Anas called me his 'designated b******', which I thought was very mean.' But she says 'very mean' in the manner of one of the Bennet sisters taking bashfully about that nice Mr Bingley. 'You just need a long memory,' she says. Now we're talking. I'm meeting Ms Baillie the day after the end of Sandie Peggie's employment tribunal versus NHS Fife in what's become Scotland's Dreyfus moment. I can't not ask her about it and she knows it too. Ms Baillie is currently in the process of selecting candidates for next year's Holyrood elections and has noted that more men are coming forward than women. She's putting twinning arrangements in place to ensure equality. This isn't surprising. When women see what happens to other women in public life or in the public eye – Sandie Peggie, Kate Forbes, Joanna Cherry, JK Rowling – it must make them less inclined to volunteer for the same treatment. And so we begin exchanging our most vivid recollections of the tribunal. I tell her that Sandra Peggie being questioned over her claim that she'd been having a heavy period when she'd asked Dr Upton to leave the female nurses' changing-room was just about the most sinister and malevolent statement I'd ever seen uttered in Scottish public life. Sandie Peggie brought the case against NHS Fife. (Image: PA) Jackie Baillie says: 'What I hated the most was how Sandie Peggie's daughter was used against her and forced to say twice that her mum was her best friend. I was utterly horrified by that. 'Let me be clear, though. If I was Health Secretary my position would be to improve waiting times at gender identity clinics. I've seen people who are experiencing gender dysphoria and all the physical and emotional torment that comes with that. Do I have a responsibility to do reduce waiting times in these cases? Absolutely. 'The Gender Recognition Certification process requires reform, but I wouldn't go as far as self-ID, because you then remove the kind of protections that I think are still needed.' From the evidence she's heard in Ms Peggie's employment tribunal, does she think there's enough alleged malfeasance to merit a public inquiry into the customs and practices of NHS Fife? 'I'm loathe to call for public inquiries,' she says, 'partly because they take so long; they're expensive and I've never been convinced that their recommendations are always followed. Do I think though, that there needs to be some kind of independent investigation into what's happened [at NHS Fife]: absolutely. 'I can't help but think of the 800,000 people on waiting lists across Scotland, many of whom are from Fife: the delayed discharges; the cancer waiting lists. All of them exert real pressures on the NHS and yet so much time of NHS Fife's senior management team has been devoted to this case. 'I note that Dr Upton doesn't have a gender recognition certificate and so why can't we – and I get the desire to be inclusive – be inclusive of all staff while respecting individual rights?' Read more Kevin McKenna: I ask Ms Baillie if it's as simple as building a third toilet and changing facility. 'The corporate body of the Scottish Parliament got it right,' she says, 'when they designated some spaces across the estate as women-only; some as men-only and some as unisex. This made sense. 'Sandra Peggie is a nurse and we should value our nurses. NHS Fife's primary responsibility is healthcare and dealing with patients, so why are they pitting staff groups against each other? I also question the sense of NHS Fife being joint defenders in this action and I question the amount of money that's been spent on this and every day. NHS Fife are not covering themselves in glory.' Does she have a view about the SNP repeatedly expressing confidence in NHS Fife throughout the tribunal? 'I know, having been around for so long, that there is no way on earth that Scottish ministers – and particularly the Health Minister – knew nothing about what was going to happen. I don't understand why we are still here. Some people believe it should play out, but to be frank, if I was the Scottish Government I would have ended this. 'The issue now is that Sandie Peggie won't be the only person. There will be other health boards and other public bodies. The government needs to move fast on this. It can't wait until after the election. 'Practically, we need to see where there has been institutional capture and fix that. That's what the Scottish Government should do without waiting. I'm now in a place that says we should be inclusive of everybody in society but that there's a way of doing it that safeguards the rights of others.' Yet, wasn't [[Scottish Labour]] party complicit in bringing us to this employment tribunal in Dundee by voting with the Government on the GRA? 'You all saw what was happening. Were you just listening to the wrong people or was it a case of not wanting to upset some activists,' I ask. 'None of the above,' she says forcefully. 'I was brought in late after Stage 2 of the GRA had passed to try and negotiate with the Scottish Government. We were particularly keen to place amendments in the bill that would protect single-sex spaces. 'I spent a lot of time trying to negotiate with [then Health Secretary] Shona Robison. 'What would happen though, is that having agreed something with me, she would then go to the Scottish Greens and Maggie Chapman and it would unravel.' 'Yet, you all – with a few noble exceptions – still voted for it,' I tell her. 'I had assurances on the record that they would discuss all of the detail with the UK Government (for Equality Act purposes),' says Ms Baillie. 'Nor did we impose a whip from the centre. We had group meetings where every single member was invited to speak and the group as a whole decided to take particular concessions. Some of them I didn't share, but I respected the process we went through which was the most inclusive route there had been about any piece of legislation. Well, perhaps. In mitigation, there was support for Michelle Thompson's amendment aimed at pausing applications for GRCs from men 'charged with a sexual offence but not yet convicted and placed on the sexual offenders' register'. The MSP, who is a survivor of sexual assault, had warned that allowing these risked traumatising and harming their female victims. Ms Baillie had also tabled her own amendment. 'If you look at what we tried to do with the amendment, we were trying to get to a position where there were more safeguards in the Bill. We were very clear about protecting single-sex spaces. 'I think then that reality hit them with the Isla Bryson case and the extent to which it could be manipulative was just laid bare.' 'Our fault was to believe the reassurances we'd been given that there were negotiations going on with the UK Parliament. I'm not really buying this either. In the world of Scottish politics, you'd trust rattlesnakes more than any assurances given by the [[SNP]] in the Nicola Sturgeon era. PART TWO ON MONDAY: The relationship between Holyrood Labour and Westminster Labour; seeking candidates with life experience and how the SNP have betrayed their own supporters.
