Could he help save Labour’s Scottish seats?

The first day of the Labour conference has seen a fair bit of activity in the betting on who’ll be next leader.

The focus has been the shadow defence spokesman, Jim Murphy.

With William Hill he started the day at 25/1 – he’s now priced at 14/1.

PaddyPower had him opening at 20/1 – that’s now tightened to 12/1.

Victor Chandler also started at 20/1, then moved to 14/1 and now have Murphy at 10/1.

Stan James moved from 20/1 to 14/1.

Quite what’s driving this I don’t know although he has been reported in recent days as having leadership ambitions.

One factor could be the Scottish element. I have heard it said that having a Scotsman like Murphy at the helm might stem the likely seepeage of Labour seats to the SNP at the next election.

@MikeSmithsonPB