In February 2010, the Secretary of State for Scotland, Jim Murphy, said in the House of Commons that faith was "at the very foundations of the Labour Party" and encouraged openness to religion in public life. O'Brien responded that he "welcomed the sentiment" but said that "a tangible example by the Government over the last decade that it acknowledged or endorsed religious values would also have been welcomed. Instead we have witnessed this Government undertake a systematic and unrelenting attack on family values." O'Brien said to the Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Iain Gray, "I hope he Benedict XVI gives you hell his September 2010 visit for what has happened over the past 10 years."