Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to call on Keir Starmer to stand down

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is to call on Keir Starmer to stand down as prime minister and Labour leader at a hastily arranged press conference in Glasgow.

Sarwar is said to be furious that what he sees as the prime minister’s repeated mistakes have severely damaged support for Scottish Labour in the run-up to the crucial Scottish parliament elections in May.

Recent opinion polls show Labour trailing in third place behind the Scottish National party and Reform. Sarwar and his advisers have calculated it will be impossible for Starmer to recover after the scandal over Peter Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein.

Sarwar’s team was deeply irritated to learn last week that the prime minister had been arguing internally that he needed to remain in office to help Scottish Labour win the May election. They believe the polls show that Starmer’s continued leadership will destroy Scottish Labour’s electoral chances.

Polling by More in Common found on Friday that Labour had fallen four points in the Holyrood constituency vote, slipping behind Reform into third place, and was also a point behind Reform on the list vote.

Until the latest developments in the Epstein scandal, Sarwar had repeatedly defended Starmer’s record and as recently as last week had offered the prime minister his tentative support.

In the months after Scottish Labour’s success in the 2024 general election, when it won 37 out of Scotland’s 57 Westminster seats, Sarwar had been extremely confident of winning the Holyrood election.

He brought in more than a £1m in donations, winning backing from wealthy Scottish business leaders, and believed Scottish voters had grown weary and disappointed with the SNP after 18 years in government.