JIM Murphy faces being dealt a devastating blow to his authority as Scottish Labour leader as senior officials from the country's largest trade union discuss his fate.

 

Unison, which supported Mr Murphy's rival Neil Findlay in the leadership contest last year and is one of the party's largest financial backers, will consider whether to follow Unite and the train drivers' union Aslef in calling for his resignation after he led the party to a catastrophic defeat at Thursday's general election, leaving Labour with just one MP in Scotland and losing his own seat.

While the final decision over the public position adopted by Unison will be taken by officials at an afternoon conference call, one insider said "I wouldn't expect it to be positive for Jim" and another senior source at the union gave a damning indictment of Labour's campaign north of the border.

It comes after Mr Murphy, who is expected to face a motion of no confidence at party's the governing Scottish Executive Committee (SEC) on Saturday, survived a crunch two-and-a-half hour election post mortem with Labour MSPs at the party's Glasgow headquarters yesterday which he attended alongside his deputy Kezia Dugdale. Meanwhile, David Miliband criticised his brother Ed's campaign to become Prime Minister, adding to Labour's turmoil.

Officially, Scottish Labour insisted that the party leadership had the overwhelming backing of its Holyrood members, although some leaving the summit declined to publicly back Mr Murphy or offered lukewarm support.

Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, said that Mr Murphy would "probably" lead the party in to next year's Holyrood elections. Glasgow MSP Hanzala Malik would only say "it's a fantastic day, isn't it?" when asked whether he still endorsed the leader.

Labour justice spokesman Hugh Henry, enterprise spokesman Graeme Pearson and MSPs Lewis Macdonald and Siobhan McMahon publicly supported Mr Murphy to stay on.

When asked whether Mr Murphy had received the unanimous backing of MSPs, Jackie Baillie replied: "The overwhelming majority of MSPs are very much behind Jim and Kez, leading us forward together, because we've got such a huge job to do. Our problems go much deeper than simply who the leader is."

She claimed she "could not recall" whether left winger Mr Findlay, who stood down from Mr Murphy's shadow cabinet at the weekend, spoke at the meeting.

However, continued questions over Mr Murphy's leadership, as well as the no-confidence motion which is set to take place on Saturday and be backed by Unite representatives, will be seen a major challenge to his authority.

It is understood opponents to Mr Murphy at Saturday's meeting of the SEC, a body of about 30 people split into three sections representing parliamentarians, local parties and trade unions and other affiliated bodies, will question Mr Murphy's claim that party rules allow non-parliamentarians to remain as leader. Even if it is decided that he is able to continue, they will seek to find other means of forcing him out.

A source at Unison, which has around 150,000 members north of the border with around a quarter paying a political levy to Labour, said Mr Murphy's campaign "lacked a narrative and consistency".

They added: "Scottish Labour began by wrapping itself in the kilt, then it started talking about socialism, finally the message was based on tactical voting. Jim was never the man to sell either Labour's Scottishness or socialism.

"People within the union did not think he was the right choice originally and this campaign has done nothing to change their minds. It is a question of whether they feel it is right to have a leadership contest now."

One party insider said Mr Murphy would win a motion of no confidence by the SEC, but added: "I do not think he could continue if he lost a motion of no confidence but the fact one seems to be happening is bad enough. "There is no real clamour to push him out but there is a feeling he is fatally wounded and limping on. People are starting to get ready for the inevitable outcome of that."