Simon Murray, Baron Murray of Blidworth

The Right Honourable The Lord Murray of Blidworth
Lord Murray of Blidworth, 2022
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Borders
In office 7 October 2022 – 14 November 2023
Prime Minister	Liz Truss Rishi Sunak
Preceded by	The Baroness Williams of Trafford
Succeeded by	The Lord Sharpe of Epsom
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 October 2022 Life Peerage
Personal details
Born	Simon Peregrine Gauvain Murray (1974-08-02) 2 August 1974 London, England
Nationality	British and Irish
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	University of St Andrews

Simon Peregrine Gauvain Murray, Baron Murray of Blidworth (born 2 August 1974), is a British lawyer and member of the House of Lords, sitting on the Conservative benches, who served as a Minister for the Home Office (2022–23).

Early life and education

The only son of Dr Nigel Ormiston Gauvain Murray (1944–2002) and his wife Shirley née Arbuthnot (born 1949), elder daughter and co-heiress of Commander Bernard Arbuthnot DSC, scion of the Arbuthnot baronets, his matrilineal great-great-grandfather, Sir Henry Blake GCMG, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Hong Kong who hailed from the Anglo-Irish gentry being seated at Myrtle Grove, County Cork. Of Scots patrilineal descent, his grandfather was Dr Ronald Murray MBE FRCPE, a kinsman of the Duke of Atholl.

After graduating from the University of St Andrews as MA, Murray was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 2000. Lord Murray practises public law at 39 Essex Chambers.

In 2011 he appeared on the BBC show, Fake or Fortune? for his family who claim ownership of the painting; even though the family did not remember owning the painting and presumably because they had realised its worth, Children Under a Palm by Winslow Homer, which had been found by a skip over 23 years earlier; although determined to be genuine, who owns this work of art is still a matter of dispute.

Political career

Elected to Gedling Borough Council at the 2019 local elections, Murray represented Newstead Abbey Ward as a Conservative Councillor until November 2022 after being appointed to HMG.

Appointed Minister of State for the Home Office by Prime Minister Liz Truss on 9 October 2022, he was created a Life Peer on 21 October 2022, taking the title of Baron Murray of Blidworth, of Blidworth in the County of Nottinghamshire.

Lord Murray made his maiden speech in the Upper House on 26 October 2022 during a debate on British Passports for those born the Republic of Ireland but living in Northern Ireland, and served in the Home Office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary from 30 October 2022 until 14 November 2023.

Family and personal life

Murray married Amelia May Beaumont (born 1983), a granddaughter of the Revd Baron Beaumont of Whitley and a great-granddaughter of Lady May Abel Smith, at Temple Church London, on 4 October 2007. Lord and Lady Murray have two children.

A Freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Scriveners, Lord Murray is a member of MCC and serves on the ceremonial staff of the Order of St John.

See also

• Forms of address in the United Kingdom
• Home Office