Sarwar allies seeking to justify Starmer attack say he could still face leadership challenge

Scottish Labour sources have sought to justify’s Anas Sarwar’s risky decision to call on Keir Starmer to resign by arguing a challenge to his leadership could still materialise.

Sarwar’s public denunciation of Starmer on Monday afternoon sent shock waves through the government but also alarmed Labour politicians in the Scottish parliament, who fear the Scottish Labour leader’s intervention was mistimed.

One source said it was clear at Westminster on Monday that no potential challenger to Starmer was ready to move, as No 10 acted quickly to shore up the prime minister’s position by successfully urging cabinet ministers to publicly back him.

“It’s a very high-risk strategy. You’ve got to succeed. It didn’t,” said one senior figure at Holyrood. Another said there were clear questions whether Sarwar’s timing was right, given it appeared to voters he had been left isolated.

That raised short-term challenges for Scottish Labour’s credibility, with the latest polls showing the party is languishing in third place behind the Scottish National party and Reform UK, with only 12 weeks until May’s Holyrood election, they said.

Both agreed, however, that Starmer days as prime minister seemed numbered. “Anas said out loud what everybody else has been thinking and saying privately.”

Sarwar’s closest allies said it was “nonsense” to suggest they expected his intervention was designed to trigger an immediate rebellion at Westminster but said there was a clear sense Starmer would soon face a challenge, and suspicions more revelations about Jeffrey Epstein or Peter Mandelson could soon emerge.

“There are people in the cabinet and Westminster who want to run,” said one senior source. “The place has been buzzing on this for weeks now. It has crystallised recently and I would give it to the end of this week to see what happens. I’m not convinced there will be a reset moment.”

Sarwar and his team were furious, allies said, that some of Starmer’s internal rivals believed it was sufficient to wait for Labour’s defeats in the Scottish, Welsh and English local government elections to challenge him.

“We’ve worked very very hard [to win],” they said. “We’re not going to be a sacrificial lamb because people haven’t got the gumption to say to Keir you’ve got to go now.”

They said voters on their doorsteps were repeatedly mentioning the Epstein and Mandelson scandal, the failure to compensate the “Waspi women”, the cost of living crisis, and the cutting of benefits for disabled people.

Those crises were “drowning out” all Scottish Labour’s successes in challenging the SNP government in Edinburgh, including over the deaths of children at a new hospital in Glasgow, and leaving Labour facing a humiliating defeat in May.

“We’re just saying what everyone is saying quietly out loud, because we don’t have time to waste,” said a senior source.

Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary in Starmer’s cabinet, portrayed the rift as a dispute between two people “who have strong and clear opinions, but who do not bear grudges”, as he sought to dampen the controversy.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Alexander likened it to the conflict between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown during the New Labour years and said he had been acting as peacemaker. “I’ve spoken to the prime minister in the last few hours. I’ve spoken to Anas, and I can tell you sincerely and authentically that there is a willingness to work together,” Alexander said.

“Keir Starmer was on the phone to me yesterday evening making very clear he remains determined that Anas Sarwar is the first minister of Scotland after May. Equally, Anas is clear that he has set out his position, he will work hard to take the fight to the SNP in the coming months.”