SOME years ago at a Labour Party conference, I stumbled into a trade union leader brandishing a coconut on the terrace of Brighton’s Grand Hotel. “This one’s for Jim Murphy” (pictured), the general secretary growled.

Just what is it about the former Scottish Labour leader that provokes such passions?

I should really be praising him, as he’s clearly been reading Landin in Scotland. Last week, I documented the efforts of several “ghosts of Scottish Labour past” to cling onto their influence.

One can only assume Murphy was rather hurt to be left out, for he made a spectacular return from the dead on Monday. He said the “way in which anti-semitism has been normalised in the darker recesses of the Labour Party” was “the one thing above all else that makes me angry about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.”

Anti-semitism is of course disgusting, and the uncomfortable truth is that there are indeed a small number who see no contradiction between their vile racism and Labour membership. The fight to eradicate this menace is not helped by a larger number of socialists who deny the presence of anti-semitism.

There is something quite audacious about Murphy’s outburst, however. And I’m not just talking about his involvement in plans for Tony Blair’s charities to collect “high-quality data” on mosques and schools, to supply to torturous regimes. Next week is the second anniversary of one of the most disgraceful episodes Scottish politics has ever seen.

Back in 2016, Labour’s national executive committee had a rule — since overturned — that candidates must be nominated by their home constituency party. For Rhea Wolfson, this was the Eastwood party, in the Glasgow suburb from which she hails.

At the meeting where she sought nomination, she was asked to leave the room. And who should then pop up but local ex-MP Jim Murphy. According to Wolfson’s statement at the time, Murphy then said it “would not be appropriate to nominate me due to my endorsement by Momentum, which he claimed has a problem with anti-semitism.”

He was clearly not bothered by the fact he was effectively blocking the only Jewish NEC candidate.

“Needless to say, I do not believe Murphy can speak with credibility on this issue,” Wolfson said this week. “Call out Murphy, continue to challenge anti-semitism — one without the other is hypocrisy.” Words well worth heeding.