LABOUR’S Ian Murray faces a battle to keep his seat after the Unite trade union said they would try to force a trigger ballot to have him replaced.

The Edinburgh South MP has long been critical of Jeremy Corbyn and the party’s current leadership.

However, he’s popular locally, and was the only Labour MP to keep his seat at the 2015 general election when the party were all but wiped out in Scotland.

Last year Labour’s annual conference voted to make it easier for local party members to deselect sitting MPs.

That’s led to a slew of incumbents facing challenges, including Margaret Hodge, Roger Godsiff, Diana Johnson, Emma Lewell-Buck, Kate Osamor and Virendra Sharma.

Murray’s constituency Labour party is due to meet on Thursday.

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For Unite to successfully trigger a full selection contest they’ll need to have the support of a third of Edinburgh South’s branches.

Murray resigned from the shadow cabinet when Corbyn was elected, and has in the years since accused the veteran left-winger of “destroying the party”.

Just last month he told BBC Scotland that Corbyn would cost Labour the election.

“Let’s just be completely honest about that,” he said. ““His personal approval ratings are minus 65, they’re the worst in history of any opposition party.

“I knock on doors week in, week out and people tell me that is the impediment to people thinking about supporting the Labour Party.

“The polling at the moment has the Labour party either level pegging with the Conservatives or 15 points behind.”

At the 2017 snap General Election, Murray increased his majority from 2637 to 15,514.