| 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 barrister[1] and Conservative member of the House of Lords.[2] He served as a minister for the Home Office (2022–2023).[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, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Hong Kong who hailed from the Anglo-Irish gentry being seated at Myrtle Grove, County Cork.[5] [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 with an undergraduate Master of Arts (MA Hons), Murray was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 2000.[8] 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;[9] 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.[10]
Appointed Minister of State for the Home Office[11] by Prime Minister Liz Truss on 9 October 2022,[12] 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.[13]
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,[14] and served in the Home Office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary from 30 October 2022 until 14 November 2023.[15]
Murray is a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
In 2002, he became an esquire of the Order of St John.