Jim Murphy will provide an initial £20,000 to support people in Arden. 

A former Scottish Labour leader has launched a new charity in the area in which he grew up. 

Jim Murphy, a former MP and Scotland Secretary under Gordon Brown, has unveiled a new project - NextGenArden. 

The new charity will operate in Arden in South West Glasgow, where Mr Murphy first grew up before moving to South Africa. 

Mr Murphy’s multi-million pound London-based Strategic Consulting firm is also named after that part of the city. 

NextGenArden is set to benefit from £20,000 initially, with the charity offering grants to people from Arden who are trying to enter the worlds of work, training and education. 

Mr Murphy told the Daily Record: “It’s giving people in Arden the type of support middle class parents often open up for their kids.

“My politics are driven by class. I used to get into trouble saying that working class parents should have the chance to have middle class kids. And I don’t see that as a bad thing.

“Inequality is about class, wealth, networks, money and soft skills.

“People who say class is nothing to do with politics completely misunderstand politics. Politics isn’t about identity. It’s about class.“We get much more exercised about people who inherit wealth and what we should do about it than we do about families who inherit poverty and what we should do about it.

"This is a genuine attempt in one corner of Glasgow to start doing something about it.”Mr Murphy admitted in his interview with the Record that locals have already met him with suspicion, adding: “I’ve been out talking to some people in Arden in the last few days and they say ‘what’s the catch! That’s one of the things to get over - the cynicism.”