Sarwar effectively starts Scottish Labour’s Holyrood campaign with tax pledge

Sarwar said change was a ‘two stage process’ for Scotland after 14 years of the Conservatives in Westminster and 17 years of the SNP in Holyrood. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Anas Sarwar has effectively fired the starting gun on the 2026 Holyrood election campaign as he pledged not to raise income tax if he became first minister.

Sarwar told an audience of candidates and activists at the launch of Scottish Labour’s Westminster manifesto in Edinburgh, “we know change for Scotland is a two stage process” and that voters wanted to “turn the page … on 14 years of chaos under the Tories, and 17 years of failure under the SNP”.