A SCOTTISH Labour MP has failed to declare a role in his baroness mother’s parliamentary advisory firm, The National can reveal.
Chris Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, is listed as the secretary of the company RCDM Associates Limited, by Companies House. Yet he doesn’t mention any association with the firm in his register of interests as an MP – as he is required to do under Westminster’s rules.
In her register of interests as a member of the House of Lords, his mum, the former Labour MP and MSP Margaret Curran, describes the company, of which she is also a director, as a “personal services company providing advice on international parliamentary and political programmes”.
While Baroness Curran’s LinkedIn page lists various roles she’s taken on since losing her Glasgow East seat to the SNP in 2015, it makes no mention of RCDM or its clients.
The firm is owned by Curran and her husband, Robert “Rab” Murray – Chris’s father, while the MP son has been listed as secretary since the firm was founded in 2008. The company’s accounts show annual income varying over that period, and never more than £30,000.
Asked about the matter, a spokesperson for Chris Murray MP said: “Chris Murray resigned from this role a number of years ago and his name’s presence on the company’s register is an admin error.
“Chris has never received any remuneration from this role and has contacted the Commons Registrar interests to correct this issue.”
Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, said: “MPs are required to report any directorships they hold in a timely manner to the parliamentary authorities.”
This is necessary, he said, in order to “help identify and address potential conflicts between legislators’ public duties and private affairs”.
Curran was MSP for Glasgow Baillieston from 1999-2011, during which time she served in various roles, including as communities minister.
As MP for Glasgow East from 2010-2015, she was Labour’s shadow secretary of state for Scotland. In January this year, she was appointed to be a law-maker for life as one of a group of new Labour peers, many of whom had been rejected by voters last year.
Chris Murray (below), Curran’s son, was elected as MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh in 2024, defeating the SNP’s Tommy Sheppard.
While his register of interests doesn’t mention RCDM, it does reveal that Murray received a £10,000 donation from the think tank Labour Together, which also ran Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign.
Labour Together is itself funded by a small group of multimillionaires, including two major hedge-fund managers. The group has been credited with driving the party to the right in recent years, and has been described by the investigative reporter Solomon Hughes as “a scheme for a band of high-net-worth individuals to shape Labour’s leadership, fixing them to the low-tax, pro-market policies they and their bank balances prefer”.
Other donors to Murray – likely for his election campaign – include the Autoglass Repair millionaire Gary Lubner, who splashed millions in donations to the party ahead of the election, also supporting Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper and David Lammy; and the Edinburgh lawyer Gordon Dalyell, son of the famous former Labour MP Tam Dalyell.
Murray also received £6500 from the prominent comedian Tracy Ullman, who has previously angered left-wing members of the Labour Party with a sketch about Jeremy Corbyn which mocked the then-leader over allegations relating to antisemitism.
Ullman, whose daughter has previously stood for Labour selection, is believed to be a friend of the MP.
RCDM’s latest accounts show it only made around £11,000 of profit over 2023-2024. However, the Code of Conduct for MPs says that they must declare any company directorships.
Mr Murray terminated his role with RCDM hours after The National contacted him for this story.
