Anas Sarwar has warned the Scottish election campaign and the next Holyrood parliament is in danger of becoming a “circus” if the agenda is dominated by egos and old arguments about independence.
The Scottish Labour leader said he was feeling positive about his campaign despite polling showing Labour languishing in third place behind the Tories with a month to go to voting day.
Despite a strong showing in the first TV debate Sarwar’s Labour Party would achieve 21 seats, which is down two on the 2016 election, according to a poll published on Thursday.
The SNP would return 71 seats in the Holyrood chamber and achieve 53 per cent of the constituency vote if the survey is correct.
The Scottish Conservatives would be the biggest opposition party with 27 seats and 21 per cent of the constituency vote on May 6.
Speaking to reporters on the election trail, Sarwar said: “I take lots of heart from where we are in terms of the progress we’ve made in just five weeks since I became leader.”
“For me this is about making sure we have a parliament that’s focused on recovery, not egos not settling scores, not going back to the old arguments."
He added: “The risk we have is that people want to make this election campaign a circus and they want the next parliament to be a circus. And who pays the price for it being a circus? It’s people across the country who need the parliament to work for them.”
“Do we really want our parliament to be pulled and the government to be pulled towards what Douglas Ross is saying, what Alex Salmond is saying, what George Galloway is saying, or do you want it to be pulled to a national recovery?"
Sarwar continued: "The way we do that is stopping an SNP majority to make sure Nicola Sturgeon is not forced onto her blind spot and forced to go down a route that takes us on to those old arguments and divisions.”
Sarwar once again ruled out any kind of electoral pact with the Conservatives despite Douglas Ross seemingly encouraging voters to back the constituency candidates most likely to beat the SNP.
Sarwar said: “I don’t think what politicians should do is attempt to game the system. You’ve seen that in terms of a couple of big egos in the election campaign who want to game the system. Individuals can make their own choice when it comes to voting in this election, I don’t think it’s right for us to be doing any kind of gaming.”
"If you want to be focused on a national recovery, focused on working together to get things done in Scotland, then I am calling on people to vote Labour in this election.”
