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Since Scottish Labour’s poor Holyrood election last month, Anas Sarwar has had the air of a dead man walking.
Don’t get me wrong, he is still doing what the job demands. He turns up to FMQs every week. Chimes in here and there with critique of the SNP Government. At the recent Westminster by-elections in Aberdeen South and Arbroath & Broughty Ferry, he made a social media video promoting the party’s two candidates.
But I saw little evidence of a concerted campaign in either. It was unsurprising when they came a disastrous 4th place in both.
One of Sarwar’s allies, Glasgow South MP Zubir Ahmed, said last month there is “no mood” for Sarwar to resign.
But I am told by multiple party sources that doesn’t exactly describe the mood within the Scottish Executive Committee (SEC).
I was there at the press huddle at a hotel in Glasgow earlier this week – organised after Keir Starmer’s resignation as PM – when he said that he wants to remain as Scottish Labour leader for another 5 years.
He didn’t appear to me to be entirely convinced of it himself.
Pressed specifically on whether he will serve for the remainder of the parliamentary term, Sarwar responded: “Look, that is my intention. I'm hungry for the fight ahead, and I want to play my full part in making sure this country never ends up in the hands of Nigel Farage and Reform UK.”
But Sarwar can’t seem to shake the resignation calls.
Speaking with The Daily Record this week, one senior party source accused Sarwar of “bed blocking”.
Another insider told the newspaper that Sarwar and his deputy Jackie Baillie are behaving like “squatters”.
One senior source said: “We are ten months from Scotland returning to the ballot box for the local elections, yet nothing has been done to rebuild since May’s disaster. Anas and Jackie are behaving like squatters - refusing to take responsibility while Scottish Labour sleepwalks into a civil war.
“The humiliating fourth-place finishes in the recent Westminster by elections are killing morale.”
Another added, more harshly: “If Anas stayed on until the next Scottish Parliament election, that would mean he had been leader for a decade, longer than Neil Kinnock. Bed blocking won’t get us anywhere.
“There needs to be an orderly transition along the lines we are seeing at Westminster.”
Reports have suggested that Sarwar is the man for the moment due to a sheer lack of anyone wanting to step up.
Whispers of leadership ambitions from the likes of MSPs Michael Marra and Paul Sweeney have remained just that.
Perhaps the hope is that Andy Burnham will not only save the Labour Party but Sarwar too. All boats rise with the tide, as the saying goes.
But for now, it looks very much like a leadership not so much enduring as limping towards its end.
