Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar agreed Keir Starmer The party can campaign in the Holyrood election just days after calling for the Prime Minister to resign.
In a significant shift of position, Sarwar said Starmer and other cabinet ministers were welcome to back Scottish Labour’s faltering bid to win in May, but only if they could demonstrate how the UK government could improve lives. Scotland.
A couple of days ago the server went haywire By calling Stormer to quit. He said in early January that the prime minister and his colleagues should “be behind their doors” in London during the campaign. The UK government is deeply unpopular with the electorate.
He said they were left “angry, frustrated and impatient” by repeated policy failures and missteps.
When pressed by reporters at Holyrood on Wednesday whether he would welcome Starmer to Scotland, after demanding he stand, Sarwar said he would.
If “the Prime Minister and other Ministers, if they want to come to Scotland and demonstrate that they are delivering to Scotland by being UK labor Government, it is welcome,” he said.
“But I’m leading this campaign, I’m the First Minister candidate. Keir Starmer’s name is not on the ballot paper. My name is on the ballot paper. Scotland has to choose between me and John Swinney”, the leader of the Scottish National Party and current First Minister.
His marked shift comes just 48 hours after calls for Starmer to quit will fuel suspicions that he is backing down after failing to secure any significant support from Labor MPs and UK ministers.
Most of Labour’s 20 MSPs endorsed the server’s stance, but few MPs did. Some Scottish MPs and Ministers are very angry about Sarwar’s intervention.
One described it as “incredibly high risk and very stupid” and said it would worsen Labour’s electoral chances rather than improve them.
However, Starmer knows his survival as Labor leader will depend on the party doing well in Scotland on May 7, they said.
It was widely accepted that the nationalist party Plaid Cymru would win the Welsh election and Reform would do well in the English council elections, both held on the same day.
“If Anas does well and becomes the first minister, the prime minister may survive,” the source said. “If he doesn’t, it will make the prime ministership more difficult.”
Stormer has said she will campaign with Sarwar despite the Downing Street rift. “He will campaign in Scotland,” his press secretary said. Asked if that would be with the Scottish Labor leader, they said: “He supports Annas being First Minister, so yes”.
The Scottish Secretary, Douglas Alexander, urged the two men to put their differences aside. Alexander is co-chairman of Scottish Labour’s election campaign, so he faces questions within the party about how he can support Starmer while working for Sarver.
Asked if Starmer wanted to resign, Sarwar said he stood by his comments on Monday but declined to repeat them. Instead, he used more conciliatory words about Starmer’s promises to Labor MPs this week to change his approach.
“I have made my point, I stand by that view, I welcome that there is now a general acknowledgment that things are not good enough, that there are many mistakes and that things need to change,” he said.
“I put myself in front of the people in three months’ time. And the people of Scotland deserve to know what my standards are, what I believe in, what I’m prepared to put up with and what I’ll do differently if I’m elected First Minister.”
