Anas Sarwar says Labour is ‘going flat out’ to win next Holyrood election

Anas Sarwar has told how he has a “level of admiration” for former Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon – but insisted Labour will be “going flat out” to replace the SNP at the next Holyrood election.

Mr Sarwar said he hoped to come out of the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections leading a minority Labour administration.

The Scottish Labour leader said: “We are going to go flat out to win the election, my intention is to hopefully come out of that election to form a minority Labour government.”

Mr Sarwar, speaking at the Political Party With Matt Forde event at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, said while he had enjoyed Labour’s UK general election victory last month “for 10 minutes”, he was now “thinking about the next target”.

He said: “One thing I hope people can see from me is I didn’t come into this to be leader of the Scottish Labour Party, genuinely I didn’t.

“I love the Labour Party, I love the history of the Labour Party, for me it is the best vehicle for social change.

“But I am serious about leading this country, I’m serious about giving back to the country that has given my family every single thing it has got, and I am serious  about being first minister.

“That is what people are going to see between now and 2026.”

Mr Sarwar, who took over as Scottish Labour leader from Richard Leonard in 2021, said the job had always been a “multi-stage process” for him.

He said the first thing he had to do was “to make sure we survive”, recalling that heading into the 2021 Holyrood election “only 8% of Scots said they were definitely voting Labour”.

But now with Scottish Labour having gone from having just one MP in the 2019 general election to winning 37 of the 57 seats up for grabs last month, Mr Sarwar said that “the next stage is to make sure we are delivering for Scotland and setting out that positive case for change in 2026”.

He told the audience: “We are going to go for a minority Labour government, I think one of the things that devolution was meant to be was not one party pretending they have a monopoly on everything, a monopoly on the Parliament or a monopoly on ideas.

“It was meant to be about trying to pull together the best parts of Scotland and come up with a package of reform and delivery that delivers for every part of the country.”

With Humza Yousaf quitting as first minister after ending the powersharing Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Greens, Mr Sarwar stressed he would not be inviting them to be part of any government with him.

Speaking about the Greens, he said: “If they have a good idea I am happy to listen to it – but do I want them in government? No, to be blunt about it.”

However he said he believed former SNP leader Ms Sturgeon had brought the Greens into government to “make the SNP’s life easier rather than for it to be a more effective government”.

The Labour MSP recalled there had been “two or three really close no confidence votes” in SNP ministers prior to the deal being drawn up, adding: “It was about parliamentary arithmetic and keeping comfortable, rather than about good government.”

His comments came as he expressed a “level of admiration” for Ms Sturgeon, who he said he had known for “a very long time”.

Mr Sarwar said: “When my father stood for election in 1997 to be an MP, the SNP candidate against him was Nicola Sturgeon, which is one of the reasons my mother has never liked her.”

While he stressed he had “of course massive political disagreements with her”, he added: “Do you accept she was a very, very effective politician? Absolutely.

“Do you have a level of admiration for the work ethic, particularly during the Covid pandemic? Absolutely.”