SCOTLAND’S only Labour MP has taken a swipe at the party's UK leadership as he launched his campaign to become deputy, insisting he has "beaten the odds" all his life.

Ian Murray insisted senior figures such as shadow chancellor John McDonnell should “never again” come up to Scotland and change the party’s constitutional position without telling anyone.

And he made a direct plea to Labour’s leadership candidates to stay out of Scottish politics if they don’t know what they are talking about.

The Edinburgh South MP spoke out as he officially launched his campaign to be Labour’s deputy leader at his old school, Wester Hailes Education Centre, in Edinburgh. 

He insisted his party must “never again face both ways on the big issues of our time”, referring to its confused positions on Brexit and independence in the run up to the general election. 

Mr Murray also said he was “embarrassed about the cancer of antisemitism”, and would “take personal responsibility for the grievance and complaints process” if elected deputy.

He said he would demand all outstanding complaints are placed on his desk on the Monday morning, with a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism and all forms of racism.

Elsewhere, Mr Murray announced plans for a review of how the UK is governed, possibly laying the groundwork for federalism.

In a speech to supporters, he took aim at Mr McDonnell, who caused chaos last summer when he said Labour would not stand in the way of a second independence referendum during a visit to Edinburgh.

Mr Murray said: “Let’s never again have a senior member of the Labour Party coming to a Fringe show at the Edinburgh Festival and changing our constitutional position on Scotland without telling anyone. 

“That’s not just disrespectful to the Labour Party, it’s not just disrespectful to the Scottish Labour Party, it’s disrespectful to every single person that looks to the Labour Party for holding this UK together and standing up for the key principle that independence for Scotland is bad for Scotland and independence for Scotland is bad for the rest of the UK.”

Asked how he would stop UK Labour figures undermining party policy north of the Border, Mr Murray said: “As deputy leader of the Labour Party it will never happen on my watch, working very closely with the new leader. 

“And secondly, and I say this to all leadership and deputy leadership candidates, please don’t come up to Scotland and talk about things that you’re not quite sure what you’re talking about.

“Just make sure, in the first instance, that you at least try and understand.

“I wouldn’t even compare or talk about anything that’s happening in Salford where Rebecca Long-Bailey is the MP, or in Norwich where Clive Lewis is the MP…without having spoken to them and being completely across the issues.

“It’s no different from coming up to Scotland and talking about those kind of issues.”

Mr Murray said he had beaten the odds all his life, from landing a place at university at the age of 16 to “coming from a housing estate down the road where statistically you’re more likely to be in jail than in parliament”.

Meanwhile, he is once again the only Labour MP in Scotland following SNP gains across Scotland in December.

The MP also took aim at some on the left of his party.

He said: “Some members of the Labour Party call me a Tory.

“Some members of the Labour Party say, ‘You only win your seat because you persuade Tories, Liberals and Nationalists to vote for you.’

“Well that’s election winning 101, isn’t it?”

Mr Murray, who is firmly against a second independence referendum, rejected the idea of the Scottish Labour Party splitting from its UK structures, as some have suggested.

He said Labour must become a party for the entire UK.

Asked about his plans for a review into the way the UK is governed, he said: “Since our 2015 general election manifesto, we’ve been talking about a constitutional convention. 

“Now – I don’t like the term – but it’s about listening to the public and trying to formulate a new way that we govern all the nations and regions.”

Mr Murray said he wanted the party to undertake “a very serious piece of work, in opposition, that we can take into government about how we govern the whole of the UK”. 

He added: “The biggest problem in this of course is England, because Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland already have a devolution journey that is in train. 

“So where does England go next? Merseyside, Manchester, London all have devolution to an extent.

“You might come out with federalism, but I think it also is much wider – voting systems, the House of Lords, how we engage voters, how we get people on registers, how we make it easy for people to vote, all of those things have to be part of this.”

Mr Murray told supporters he would also present a report to the party’s September conference on how Labour can win again.

Labour suffered its worst electoral defeat since 1935 at the election in December.