Karie Murphy

Murphy trained as a nurse in Glasgow and worked with HIV+ patients at Ruchill Hospital. She was a nurse for 25 years before entering trade union politics.[1]

Murphy has a long career in the Labour movement, including several years on the staff of Tom Watson.

She has sought nomination as a Labour Party parliamentary candidate several times. In 2013, the selection process for Falkirk led to a party inquiry into accusations of vote-rigging. Murphy was cleared of any wrongdoing but withdrew from the contest.[2]

Since 2016, she has been Executive Director of the Leader's Office, under Jeremy Corbyn.[3][4] Along with Seumas Milne, Andrew Murray and Len McCluskey she has been identified as one of the "Four Ms" who it is claimed have significant influence on Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party.[5]

In the 2017 general election, it was the Labour leadership's office team, led by Murphy, that was credited with the foresight to approach the poll in ways barely understood by most media commentators at the time, resulting in a hung parliament.[6] Among the team, Murphy was reported as having come closest to estimating the result.[7]

In October 2019, she was seconded to Labour head office to lead the prospective general election campaign.[8]

Following the 2019 general election which saw Labour achieve its fewest seats since the 1935 general election, some attributed the defeat to Murphy's strategic approach. Murphy had reportedly told advisors that the election was to be "a full-on assault" and that "every single seat is there for the battle."[9] The Sunday Times leaked a list of target seats on the 19th January which included Stourbridge (Con majority 7,654), Dover (6,437) and Gloucester (5,520).[9] Sources in The Times criticised the perceived failure to provide resources to internal Corbyn critics such as Ruth Smeeth, Mary Creagh, and Melanie Onn,[9] as well as the decision to target seats such as Finchley and Golders Green where former Labour MP Luciana Berger was running, and Plaid Cymru-held Arfon[9] instead of Conservative-Labour marginals in nearby Aberconwy and Clwyd West. The Times claimed it had spoke to some senior figures in the Labour Party who felt Murphy approached the contest with a "deranged optimism" after the 2017 election, while others felt Murphy had been driven by a desire from Murphy and Len McClusky to "prove wrong" pro-EU MPs such as Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry.

Despite the result of the election, Murphy was named by Corbyn in his dissolution honours list.[10] The move was praised by Skwawkbox which described Murphy as "Corbyn’s ‘firewall’ during some of the parliamentary right’s most inexcusable behaviour:"[10] However, the Guardian reported "some members were infuriated by the news".[10] Labour Deputy Leader candidate Rosena Allin-Khan stated that "anyone being investigated by the EHRC (should not) be recommended for a peerage".[10]

In 2017, Murphy revealed she had donated a kidney to save the life of a boy she did not know.[11]