Last night, The Herald revealed Edinburgh Council first received complaints about Cammy Day in 2018 – four years before he was installed as its leader.
There was also a sexual harassment complaint made to the party against the former Edinburgh council leader in March 2023.
In total, Mr Day has been the subject of five complaints made to the council between 2018 and the end of 2023.
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Mr Murray told The Herald today he, like Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, was only aware of complaints against Mr Day when it was reported in the press recently in December 2024.
Asked if he was aware of any complaints before then by The Herald, Mr Murray said: “No I wasn’t aware of any complaints. There’s an ongoing inquiry going on. We should let that happen. That’s being run by the council, I think.
“I would encourage anyone who has got complaints about anyone to come forward. The problem here is that complaints are dealt with retrospectively so we need better reporting mechanisms.”
The resignation of Mr Day also came after the arrests of two senior Labour councillors last year.
At the start of December, Glasgow Labour councillor Philip Braat had been charged in connection with stalking offences in October. The former lord provost has been suspended from the party pending an investigation and no court date has been given yet.
In November, Inverclyde Council leader Stephen McCabe was separately charged with assault and threatening or abusive behaviour. He pled not guilty when he appeared in court in November and is due to return to court for trial next month.
Asked by the Herald if he believes there is a cultural problem with his party in terms of sexual harassment or assault allegations, Mr Murray denied there was a problem with “sexual assault or whatever”.
Mr Murray told journalists: “I wouldn’t say there is a cultural problem in the labour party…on sexual assault or whatever.
“I think that would be a wrong conclusion to draw and unfair on the tens of thousands of Labour members.”
Ahead of the reports on Mr Day in December but after the arrest of the two councillors, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said it was “nonsense” to suggest there is a cultural problem in his party.
At the start of December, Mr Sarwar was asked whether the two cases suggest a cultural issue within his party.
“I think that’s utterly nonsense,” he said. “I think there will be individual cases that come across all individual political parties.
“But is this deeply unfortunate? Yes, but I’m not going to comment on live investigations.”