LABOUR have been slammed for “pulling the most undemocratic trick in the Westminster book” by reportedly planning to give Anas Sarwar a peerage so he can join Andy Burnham’s UK Government.
The Glasgow MSP is set to become the UK Government’s business minister and will be given a peerage, according to reports.
Parliamentarians in Scotland are banned from holding dual mandates in both Holyrood and Westminster, meaning he would be required to resign as a regional MSP and take up a seat in the House of Lords.
Sarwar resigning from Holyrood will mean that the left-wing candidate he defeated in the previous Scottish Labour leadership election, Monica Lennon, automatically becomes an MSP on the Glasgow list.
It comes after Sarwar led Labour to the party’s worst ever result at a Scottish Parliament election where they lost four seats.
SNP deputy leader, Keith Brown MSP, said as it is “always the case with the Labour Party, there’s always a cushty number in the House of Lords”.
He said: “This is a terrible look for Andy Burnham who waxed lyrical about a new politics and devolving power - he’s just pulled the most undemocratic trick in the Westminster book.”
Brown added: “What a signal to send after their democractic defeat - this is the Labour Party literally lording it over the people of Scotland.
“This morning Andy Burnham denied Scottish democracy in a phone call with Scotland’s First Minister, tonight he appoints a failed Scottish Labour leader to the Lords. This new Labour Government has deeply damaged its democratic credibility tonight.
“Andy Burnham raised the question of where power lies on these islands - it’s clear the Labour Party are still stubbornly determined to keep it firmly in the grip of a detached and undemocratic Westminster establishment.”
SNP MSP and Minister for Public Finance, Hannah Mary Goodlad, also panned Sarwar for putting himself before the communities he serves.
She said: “I don’t know about you but I’m pretty fed up of this opportunistic kind of politics.
“People putting themselves before their place, before their communities, before the people they are meant to serve.
“We can do better.”
Neil Findlay, a former Labour MSP for Lothian from 2011 to 2021, criticised reports that Sarwar is to be given a peerage, saying he should have had the “humility to resign and accept responsibility” following Scottish Labour’s disastrous May elections.
He said: “When Richard Leonard was elected Labour leader Anas Sarwar, worked every day to undermine Richard. When he became leader he was a disaster.
“Instead of being ‘rewarded’ with life long pay cheque from the HOL he should have had the humility to resign and accept responsibility.”
Reform UK Scotland deputy leader and MSP for Glasgow Thomas Kerr said: “Only weeks ago, Anas Sarwar stood before the people of Glasgow asking for their trust and insisting that his future was here in Scotland. Today, those same voters will rightly feel betrayed.
“Throughout the election campaign, he dismissed suggestions that he had ambitions elsewhere and claimed his focus was on serving Scotland. Now, at the first opportunity, he has walked away from the very people who placed their faith in him.
“Whether this was his choice or the consequence of Labour’s disastrous election performance, the outcome is the same: Glasgow has been denied the leadership it was promised.
“This is yet another example of Labour abandoning Glasgow when it becomes politically convenient. The people of this city deserve representatives who will stand and fight for them, not politicians who treat public office as a stepping stone to their next job.”
