KEIR Starmer couldn’t have wished for a better foot soldier than Anas Sarwar – but is there trouble in paradise?
The Scottish Labour leader has repeatedly gone out to bat for the Prime Minister on questionable policy decisions.
He backed the UK Government’s welfare reforms and cut billions of pounds by targeting health-related benefits – despite outrage from the public and an eventual screeching U-turn from Labour ministers.
Sarwar even backed Starmer’s plans for immigration reforms – but wouldn’t go as far as supporting the language the Prime Minister used to announce them, which was likened to Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech.
And, most recently, he defended Starmer’s handling of the Peter Mandelson row, where he delayed over sacking the then-UK ambassador to the US after further details of his relationship to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were exposed.
Truly, we could dedicate an entire newsletter to Sarwar’s diligent backing of the Prime Minister, even when it is to his own detriment and poll ratings north of the Border, but we won't.
Speaking to journalists in Holyrood on Thursday, Sarwar seemed to be reluctant to completely back Starmer amid rumours that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is mulling a leadership challenge.
What did he say?
Simply put, he repeatedly refused to say that he has full confidence in Starmer.
“He has got a really difficult job, we have made significant progress in the last year,” he said.
“If I’ve got one single biggest criticism of a UK Labour Government, it is there have been huge successes, but very few people have been told about them or know about them.”
But, when pushed on whether he has full confidence in the Prime Minister, he said: “I think to be even talking in those terms is frankly ridiculous.
“This is a Prime Minister who won a historic victory, removed the Tories from office, won a huge landslide, and now he has to get on with the day job.”
And, when asked if Starmer was the right person to be in Downing Street, he deflected and dodged answering the question.
Instead, he said that John Swinney is the “worst person” to be in Bute House.
On Burnham, he said the Mayor should “continue to serve the great people of Manchester”.
But despite repeated questions from political hacks, Sarwar didn’t give as much glowing support as one might expect.
What have polls got to do with it?
Sarwar is one of the most unlikely Scottish politicians to outright criticise Starmer, but his dodging of answering the questions does give us an insight that the relationship might be beginning to fray.
Sarwar is intent on winning the keys to Bute House at the Holyrood 2026 election, but thanks to Starmer, any polling lead in front of the SNP has completely fallen off.
With Reform UK on the horizon, the Tories aren’t the only ones set to be losers when the results of the Scottish Parliament election come in.
Polling conducted by Find Out Now for The National put Labour in third place on the constituency list, at 14%, and 15% on the regional list, returning only 16 MSPs.
A second poll from Scotland in Union, run by Survation, had the SNP at a 17-point lead ahead of Scottish Labour.
And, according to polling guru John Curtice, a Labour loss in Scotland might not even be that big a deal for Starmer. Instead, all eyes will be on Labour stronghold Wales.
If the Prime Minister is at the helm when Labour loses a 100-year winning streak, and dominance in the Senedd since 1999, then he will likely be ousted from Downing Street.
And if that happens, Sarwar’s cosying up to Starmer and defending him through thick and thin will all be for nothing.
Well, that’s if he lasts that long.
