| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Murray of Blidworth | |
| Primeminister2: | Liz Truss Rishi Sunak |
| Term Start2: | 7 October 2022 |
| Term End2: | 14 November 2023 |
| Predecessor2: | The Baroness Williams of Trafford |
| Successor2: | The Lord Sharpe of Epsom |
| Office3: | Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal |
| Term Start3: | 24 October 2022 Life Peerage |
| Birth Name: | Simon Peregrine Gauvain Murray |
| Birth Date: | 2 August 1974 |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Nationality: | British and Irish |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Alma Mater: | University of St Andrews |
Simon Peregrine Gauvain Murray, Baron Murray of Blidworth (born 2 August 1974), is a British lawyer[1] and member of the House of Lords, sitting on the Conservative benches,[2] who served as a Minister for the Home Office (2022–23).[3]
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,[4] scion of the Arbuthnot baronets, his matrilineal great-great-grandfather, Sir Henry Blake GCMG,[5] was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Hong Kong who hailed from the Anglo-Irish gentry being seated at Myrtle Grove, County Cork.[6] Of Scots patrilineal descent, his grandfather was Dr Ronald Murray MBE FRCPE,[7] 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.[8] Lord Murray practises public law at 39 Essex Chambers.[9]
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;[10] although determined to be genuine, who owns this work of art is still a matter of dispute.
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.[11]
Appointed Minister of State for the Home Office[12] by Prime Minister Liz Truss on 9 October 2022,[13] 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.[14]
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,[15] and served in the Home Office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary from 30 October 2022 until 14 November 2023.[16]
Murray married Amelia May Beaumont (born 1983),[17] a granddaughter of the Revd Baron Beaumont of Whitley[18] and a great-granddaughter of Lady May Abel Smith,[19] at Temple Church London, on 4 October 2007. Lord and Lady Murray have two children.[20]
A Freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Scriveners,[21] Lord Murray is a member of MCC and serves on the ceremonial staff of the Order of St John.[22]