DOUGLAS Alexander has claimed that Andy Burnham was “keen” to reappoint him as Scottish Secretary despite concerns that he had severely damaged UK-Scottish relations while in the role.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland on Friday, Alexander also refused to answer whether he and Anas Sarwar – the former Scottish Labour leader who Burnham has made a life peer and UK Government minister – had been “rewarded for failure”.
After Burnham became Prime Minister on Monday, he kept Alexander in place as Scottish Secretary and appointed Sarwar as Trade Minister despite the pair having jointly overseen Scottish Labour’s worst-ever election defeat just two months before.
Figures inside Labour accused Sarwar of “failing upwards” and being a “failure as leader”, while the SNP depute leader at Westminster Pete Wishart said it was “almost inexplicable” that Alexander had been reappointed.
First Minister John Swinney had previously cited Alexander’s September 2025 appointment (replacing Ian Murray as Scottish Secretary) as the moment at which relations soured between the UK and Scottish Governments. Earlier this week, the SNP leader said the Scottish and UK Governments relationships had “haemorrhaged" under Alexander.
Asked about the remarks on the BBC, Alexander said: “Respectfully, the fact that we contest elections in Scotland is not a secret, and it's not really a secret either that the First Minister and I were on different sides of the recent Scottish election campaigns. That wasn't an affront to the office of First Minister. That's simply democracy.
“I've known John for almost 40 years. We were both at Edinburgh University and on a personal level, I've got a very high regard for him. I genuinely think that there's the scope for a relationship of mutual respect on both sides between the Scottish Government and the UK Government.”
Alexander was also asked if him keeping his role, and Sarwar being promoted to government, was Burnham rewarding them “both for failure”.
He responded: “Can I maybe just say first of all, and I hope you'll forgive me, I want to give a shout out to all the volunteers and staff who put on the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games at the Hydro last night. It was absolutely brilliant.
“They did Scotland proud, and it's great that the games are off to such a good start.”
Alexander then went on to describe the process of Burnham becoming Prime Minister and appointing a Cabinet, claiming that he had been “keen that I return as Scottish Secretary”.
“He said it was a big vote of confidence in those people he's reappointing and I was very grateful to accept his offer to come back to the Scotland Office and take forward our work, being Scotland's voice at the Cabinet table,” Alexander said.
“In relation to Anas, listen, he's someone I think of great ability and talent. I've done that job as trade policy minister in the past. It's a job actually that's really vital for Scotland.
“If you look at the deals that have been done, not just in the United States, but in India, in China, indeed with Europe, for example, in Scotch whisky, we've seen real progress for Scotland. So I think he's got a lot to contribute.”
Asked if there had not been any of Labour’s 403 MPs who would have been able to do the job, Alexander defended Sarwar’s appointment, likening it to David Cameron becoming Foreign Secretary under Rishi Sunak.
“There's nothing new in the fact that there are lords serving in the government,” he said.
Asked whose fault Scottish Labour’s record-low Holyrood election result had been, Alexander said the blame rested with “everyone” within “both the Scottish Labour leadership team and indeed the Scottish Labour Party”.
He went on: “We've got some very searching questions that we need to ask ourselves because you're right to recognise it was a disappointing result back in May, but we've actually seen our vote share and our number of MSPs fall repeatedly since 1999.
“Alas, that was consistent with the trend rather than what we all hoped, which was bucking a trend that's really been in place back since 1999.
“So of course, there are lessons that can and should be learned, no doubt about the campaign, but I think it's also an opportunity now to reflect on some deeper political questions about Scottish Labour's place within devolved Scotland …
“Against all expectations under Anas’s leadership, we got 37 Scottish Labour MPs elected back in July of 2024.
“So no one is absolving any of us of the collective responsibility of both figuring out how we step back and come back from what was a tough set of results, but we've done that before and very few people thought that we would be able to see 37 Scottish Labour MPs elected.”
