Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has challenged First Minister John Swinney to a series of head-to-head debates in the run-up to the Holyrood elections in May.
He said he wanted there to be a number of “first minister debates”, with one taking place in every region of Scotland, and each focused on a different policy area the Scottish Government is responsible for.
Mr Sarwar issued the challenge as he made clear the choice for voters in May’s Scottish Parliament election is “between the failures of the past with John Swinney or a better future with me as first minister”.
With polls showing Mr Sarwar’s Labour trailing behind the SNP, however, he accepted that he is the “underdog” going into the election, admitting also that the UK Labour government “haven’t got everything right” and have left some voters “angry, frustrated and impatient”.
But insisting that Labour “are determined to win”, he told people the May elections are about a “bigger and more important question than how much you like or dislike the UK Government”.
The Scottish Parliament elections are not “about protest” but are instead “about the direction our country takes”, Mr Sarwar added.
To win, he vowed Labour would spend an election fund currently “sitting at £1 million, and rising” – with almost £500,000 of this cash having been raised over the holiday period alone.
This will mean Labour will have “the largest and most effective ground campaign of any party”, Mr Sarwar said, adding that in the run-up to polling, party activists will have “one million conversations about Scotland’s choice”.
He went on to pledge his party would be “unleashing the most sophisticated and largest digital operation of any party in Scotland, reaching one million Scots every week”.
He made the commitments as he said Scotland faces having either a “third decade of SNP failure with John Swinney as First Minister”, or an alternative of “new energy, new ideas and new leadership” with his party in power.
While polls have shown rising support for Reform in Scotland – with some surveys even suggesting Nigel Farage’s party could come in second place at Holyrood in May – Mr Sarwar was clear that he was “the only candidate standing to beat the SNP and replace John Swinney as First Minister”.
However, speaking as he addressed party supporters in Edinburgh, the Scottish Labour leader said that “confronting and defeating Reform is a responsibility I relish”.
He added: “The truth is Nigel Farage does not care about Scotland. He does not understand Scotland and he does not want to fix Scotland.”
Mr Sarwar claimed Reform “want to divide communities and walk away from responsibility”.
Setting up the May 7 election as a head-to-head fight between his party and the SNP, he went on to challenge Mr Swinney to debate him on key issues across the country.
Anas Sarwar's New Year's Speech. Watch now - https://t.co/M1YB7PCNpC
— Scottish Labour (@ScottishLabour) January 5, 2026
With the SNP leader already having stated his goal of winning an overall majority at the Scottish Parliament in a bid to force a second independence referendum, Mr Sarwar said that “John Swinney wants to make this election about anything but his record”.
Hitting out at Mr Swinney, the Scottish Labour leader said: “He wants to make it about a government somewhere else, not the government here.”
But, speaking about the First Minister, he said: “If he believes in his record, he should defend it.”
Mr Sarwar continued: “I believe in my vision for Scotland, and I am happy for it to be tested.
“That is why I am challenging John Swinney to not just leaders’ debates, but head-to-head First Minister debates, one in every region of Scotland.
“Each debate focused on a key responsibility of the Scottish Government: so we can debate the SNP’s record of failure on the NHS, and my plan to fix it; so we can debate falling standards in schools, and my plan to raise them; so we can debate the housing emergency, justice, local government, transport and the economy.”
Mr Sarwar said: “I have the hunger, I have the energy, I have the ideas, I am up for the challenge. Is John Swinney?”
