A LABOUR grandee has urged the party's new leader to ensure Scotland's only Labour MP is assigned the Shadow Scottish Secretary role. 

Lord George Foulkes, a former MSP and MP said that Sir Keir Starmer should also give Ian Murray the role of Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, which would provide the MP with a vital role in constitutional issues. 

Lord Foulkes said it was "pique and nastiness" by former leader Jeremy Corbyn that kept Murray from the role previously. 

Currently the post is held by Tony Lloyd, MP for Rochdale, who also serves as shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock said: “I think he will be Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, because it was just pique and nastiness that Corbyn kept him out,” Lord Foulkes said. “But I think he needs to get more than that, because he’s done so well.

“What Keir should do is give him a job as Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, because the only way Keir is going to become Prime Minister - and I’ve said this to him - is if we win back some seats in Scotland, and Ian knows how to win seats in Scotland.

“One of the keys to that is getting the constitutional question sorted, and Ian is the person to do it.

“He would put the energy into it, he understands it, and he would focus on coming up with a solution that is acceptable to the regions of England and which deals with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in a federal or quasi-federal structure,” Lord Foulkes.

“He would consult with the country on that with energy and understanding and knowledge. I think it would be really impressive.

Lord Foulkes said the party must make progress on constitutional reform in order to tackle the SNP in Scotland.

He said Starmer should neither be "cosying up to" or "ignoring" the SNP, and added: "We can’t be more nationalist than the SNP.

"We don’t want to support the status quo and the Tories. What we do need to do is have a real alternative, our own proposals."

He said Ian Murray, who lost in his bid for the party deputy leadership to Angela Rayner, "could be the architect of a solution, just as we did for Scotland when Labour came up with the blueprint for the Scottish Parliament."