Scottish Labour at a crossroads again as Sarwar jumps ship

By

Scotland political editor

Anas Sarwar has never made a secret of his desire to hold high office.

It's only a matter of weeks since he offered himself to Scottish voters as a candidate to replace John Swinney as first minister.

That went spectacularly wrong. The SNP held power for a fifth consecutive term and Labour recorded their worst Holyrood result since devolution.

While the performance of the UK government under Sir Keir Starmer gets much of the blame, there is now a live debate in the party about Sarwar's strategy.

Questions are also being asked of Scottish Labour's campaign co-directors Jackie Baillie and Douglas Alexander.

Sarwar had said he would stick around as leader to steady the ship, but his swift exit contradicts that position and is a source of controversy for some.

There are those who see it as a reward for failure given the Holyrood defeat, even if Labour was able to beat the SNP in Scotland at the UK general election two years earlier.

There are those who see it as a reward for treachery given that Sarwar was the first senior Labour figure to call for Starmer to quit - a move that undermined the then prime minister, to the eventual benefit of Andy Burnham.

The prime minister's cabinet includes a number of those who took a stand against Starmer, so perhaps it should be no surprise that Burnham would want to make Sarwar a minister too.

There are also those who see Sarwar's appointment to the Lords in order to take up his government position as hypocritical.

Sarwar previously said he would not take a peerage, and both he and Andy Burnham have expressed support for replacing the Lords with a senate of the nations and regions.

By appointing another life peer within his first few days in office, is the new PM not sending out a completely contradictory signal?

I suppose he could argue that Sarwar is an ally on his agenda to rewire how British politics works and can now agitate for change from within.

As an experienced Labour leader in a devolved parliament with previous service as a Westminster MP, Sarwar might be particularly well placed to back up Burnham's case for devolving power from parliaments into cities and communities.

Their argument is that this could be a potential driver of economic growth.

Who could replace Sarwar?

Where does all this leave Scottish Labour? At yet another crossroads.

Sarwar was the party's tenth leader since the creation of the Scottish Parliament. They are now looking for number eleven.

The current deputy leader Jackie Baillie is in acting charge as she has been on a number of occasions in the past. She has always resisted running for the top job and will almost certainly do so again.

More likely candidates include MSP Michael Marra and Sarwar's probable replacement at Holyrood Monica Lennon - if the rules of the contest allow her to run.

The snag is that you have to be an MSP to stand for the leadership and she will not be able to take her seat until the Scottish Parliament returns in September.

My gut feeling - and it is only that - is that the party's ruling body, the Scottish Executive Committee, would want to accommodate her candidacy if she would like to run.

Other names that have been mentioned include MSPs Daniel Johnson and Paul Sweeney.

As I mentioned, there is already an internal debate about what went wrong in the 2026 Holyrood campaign and what the party needs to change. These conversations would fold in to any leadership contest.

The choice of personality is obviously important as is the party's future policy offer.

There's also likely to be discussion about whether or not Scottish Labour should split from the UK party.

Others might want to revisit their opposition to another independence referendum.

Huge questions for a party that used to dominate Scottish politics and hungers for a way back to power at Holyrood.