A SCOTTISH Labour minister refused to answer a question about whether a loss in next year’s Holyrood election should lead to the end of Keir Starmer’s premiership.
The Prime Minister is under increasing pressure following a raft of ministerial resignations and backlash over his hiring then sacking of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US given his ties to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
When asked if Starmer should lose his job if Scottish Labour fails to win in the Holyrood election in May next year, energy minister Michael Shanks told The Scotsman: “Time and time again, the SNP have said that Scottish Labour doesn't have a chance of winning.
“We won in the Hamilton by-election when they said that this was a straight choice between the SNP and Reform. They've been wrong time and time again, and they've underestimated Anas Sarwar.
“And they've also underestimated, I think, just how much the public are hurting under a legacy that's had one in six Scots on a waiting list, that's had education standards falling, that's had crime levels increasing in communities.
“These are all a failure of almost two decades of SNP government. Scotland wants a new direction, and the only person that can deliver that is Anas Sarwar as a future first minister.”
When the newspaper asked if Sarwar not becoming first minister would reflect badly on the UK Government, the MP for Rutherglen said: “Well I think he will do it, and I'm not going to be drawn on any other scenarios.
“Because the truth of this is, there's a straight choice in May of next year.
“We either enter a third decade with John Swinney at the helm, having been around the Cabinet table for most of those past 18 years, and carry on in the same path we've been on, or we chart a new course, one where we co-operate with the UK government and we work together to unlock Scotland's potential.
“And that can only happen with a change of leadership and Anas Sarwar is the only person that can offer that change.”
