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Scottish Labour now has 37 MPs – but it can’t get complacent
The party north of the border needs to have a serious think about how it retains its newly elected MPs in the future. How those MPs are able to assert Scottish policy in the UK Parliament will be key, argues PAULINE BRYAN
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaking in the House of Commons as Parliament returned with Labour ministers on the Government front bench for the first time in more than a decade

IN EARLY July the newly elected Scottish Labour MPs started arriving in Westminster just a day or two after the general election.

The 34 first-time elected MPs were joining Douglas Alexander who, after nine years’ absence, found himself back in a front-bench position, along with Michael Shanks, an MP for less a year, who now had a post in the Department of Energy.

Ian Murray, unsurprisingly, had been quickly confirmed as the Secretary of State for Scotland. These three excepted, there were no old hands to teach the new MPs the ropes and guide them through the challenges of being a Scottish MP in the UK Parliament. 

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