The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, has agreed that Keir Starmer can campaign for the party in the Holyrood elections just days after calling for the prime minister to resign.
In a marked change of position, Sarwar said Starmer and other cabinet ministers were welcome to support Scottish Labour’s faltering effort to win in May, but only if they demonstrated how the UK government was improving lives in Scotland.
Sarwar caused uproar two days ago by calling on Starmer to quit. He also said in early January that he wanted the prime minister and his colleagues to “stay behind their doors” in London during the campaign because of the UK government’s deep unpopularity with voters.
He said they had been left “angry, frustrated and impatient” by its repeated policy failures and missteps.
Pressed by reporters at Holyrood on Wednesday on whether he would welcome Starmer to Scotland after demanding he stand down, Sarwar said he would. “The prime minister, and other ministers of course, if they want to come to Scotland and demonstrate that they’re delivering for Scotland by being a UK Labour government, that’s welcome,” he said.
“But I am leading this campaign, I’m the candidate for first minister. Keir Starmer’s name is not on the ballot paper. My name is on the ballot paper. Scotland will have to choose between me and John Swinney [the Scottish National party leader and current first minister].”
His marked shift only 48 hours after calling for Starmer to quit will fuel suspicions that he is backing down after failing to get any significant shows of support from Labour MPs and none from UK ministers.
Most of Labour’s 20 MSPs have endorsed Sarwar’s stance, but few MPs have done so. Some Scottish MPs and ministers are furious at Sarwar’s intervention. One described it “as incredibly high risk and pretty foolish” and said it could make things worse for Labour rather than improving its electoral chances.
Even so, Starmer knew his survival as Labour leader could well hang on the party doing well in Scotland on 7 May, they said.
It is widely accepted that the nationalist party Plaid Cymru will win the Welsh elections and that Reform will do well in England’s council elections, with both being held on the same day. “If Anas does well and becomes first minister, the prime minister might well survive,” the source said. “If he doesn’t, it makes the prime minister’s position much more difficult.”
Downing Street said Starmer would campaign alongside Sarwar despite the rift. “He will campaign in Scotland,” his press secretary said. Asked whether that would be alongside the Scottish Labour leader, they said: “He supports Anas to be first minister, so yes.”
The Scotland secretary, Douglas Alexander, has urged the two men to set aside their differences. Alexander is a co-chair of Scottish Labour’s election campaign, so faces questions inside the party about how he can support Starmer yet work for Sarwar.
Asked whether he still wanted Starmer to resign, Sarwar said he stuck by his remarks on Monday but refused to repeat them. Instead, he used more conciliatory words about Starmer’s promises to Labour MPs this week to change his approach.
“I stated my view, I stand by that view, I welcome the fact that there is now general acceptance that things have not been good enough, that there have been far too many mistakes and things have to change,” he said. “I’m the one that’s put myself before the public in three months’ time. And people in Scotland deserve to know what my standards are, what I believe, what I’m willing to tolerate and what I would do differently if I was elected as first minister.”
