Sarwar says he’s calling for Starmer to quit because ‘failures’ in No 10 means SNP failures ‘continue here in Scotland’
Anas Sarwar says his first loyalty is to Scotland.
This has not been easy, he says.
But he says his first loyalty is to Scotland. And he is not willing to sacrifice Scotland’s schools and hospitals to a third decade of SNP rule.
I am not willing to sacrifice Scotland’s NHS, our schools, our communities, our towns, cities, villages and islands to a third decade of an SNP government.
That’s why the distraction needs to end. And the leadership in Downing Street has to change.
It is so obvious that we desperately need change in Scotland and in three months’ time, the opportunity to get rid of a failing SNP government is one that is too important to be missed.
We cannot allow the failures at the heart of Downing Street to mean the failures continue here in Scotland, because the election in May is not without consequence for the lives of Scots.
Key events
Sarwar says he spoke to Starmer this morning to tell him what he would be saying. “It’s safe to say that he and I disagreed,” he says.
Q: Last week you told me Starmer could still be PM at the next election?
Sarwar says he said Starmer could stay on a PM. But he also said there had to be answers, and it is now clear there have been “too many incidences where the wrong judgement calls have been made”.
There have been too many mistakes, he says. That is distracting from the work of the government.
And it’s also distracting from the big choice that people in Scotland have to make in three months’ time.
Sarwar says he’s not backing alternative candidate for Labour leader
Sarwar is now taking questions.
Q: Who do you want to replace Keir Starmer?
Sarwar says he is not backing an alternative candidate for leader.
Sarwar says there have been ‘too many mistakes’ from Starmer, and Labour’s achievements being ‘drowned out’
Sarwar says the SNP government in Scotland is failing.
We have an NHS crisis where too many Scots cannot access the treatment they need and when they need it.
We have a housing emergency with more than 10,000 Scottish children homeless right now, and we have too many young people not feeling safe at school or on our streets, or missing out on the opportunities they deserve.
And we have an SNP government that is addicted to secrecy and cover ups with devastating consequences.
That is why I have to be honest about failure wherever I see it.
The situation in Downing Street is not good enough. There have been too many mistakes.
Sarwar says of course good things have been achieved.
But no one knows them and no one can hear them because they’re being drowned out.
That’s why it cannot continue.
Sarwar says he’s calling for Starmer to quit because ‘failures’ in No 10 means SNP failures ‘continue here in Scotland’
Anas Sarwar says his first loyalty is to Scotland.
This has not been easy, he says.
But he says his first loyalty is to Scotland. And he is not willing to sacrifice Scotland’s schools and hospitals to a third decade of SNP rule.
I am not willing to sacrifice Scotland’s NHS, our schools, our communities, our towns, cities, villages and islands to a third decade of an SNP government.
That’s why the distraction needs to end. And the leadership in Downing Street has to change.
It is so obvious that we desperately need change in Scotland and in three months’ time, the opportunity to get rid of a failing SNP government is one that is too important to be missed.
We cannot allow the failures at the heart of Downing Street to mean the failures continue here in Scotland, because the election in May is not without consequence for the lives of Scots.
Anas Sarwar holds press conference
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is about to hold his press conference.
Until recently, he has been relatively loyal to Keir Starmer.
Eluned Morgan, the Labour Welsh first minister, will not be joining Anas Sarwar and calling for Keir Starmer’s resignation, Pippa Crerar reports.
The Labour MP Jess Asato is urging her colleagues not to turn on Keir Starmer. In an interview with Times Radio, she said constituents had been urging her to back the PM. The public would not forgive Labour if it turned on Stamer, she said. And she said colleagues had “learned nothing” from the years of Tory chaos if they thought a “magic person” was available to solve the government’s problems.
The Liberal Democrats have not been calling for Keir Starmer’s resignation today, unlike other opposition parties (see 1.57pm), but on Friday last week Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, did call for a no confidence vote in parliament. He said:
Keir Starmer should say ‘put up or shut up’. Let’s have a confidence vote now to see whether Labour MPs have any confidence in the prime minister, so the government can get past this one way or the other and start focusing on the change our country needs.
SNP criticises Sarwar for only calling for Starmer’s resignation now, claiming his judgment flawed when he used to back him
The SNP has joined other opposition parties, like the Conservatives (see 9.21am) and the Greens (see 12.45pm), in calling for Keir Starmer’s resignation.
In a statement issued before it was revealed that Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is set to call for Starmer to quit, Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, said:
The Labour government is in chaos and completely distracted from the issues that matter – like helping families with the cost of living, which has soared under Keir Starmer.
On the prime minister’s watch, the Labour Party has lurched from one crisis to another and has failed to deliver the ‘change’ voters were promised. Instead, we’ve had more of the same …
This never-ending chaos can’t go on. Keir Starmer should do the decent thing and resign.
And this is what Flynn said after it emerged that Sarwar is about to speak out.
Anas Sarwar has been the biggest cheerleader for Keir Starmer – what does that say about his judgement?
Anas Sarwar bragged about being an old friend of Peter Mandelson – what does that say about his judgement?
Anas Sarwar expressed confidence in Keir Starmer just last Thursday, and now he has acted in self-preservation to save his own skin.
That fact won’t be lost on the Scottish public come May who will see right through Anas Sarwar and his appalling judgement which has been laid bare for all to see.
Anas Sarwar promised us that Keir Starmer would be the change Scotland needed, why would anyone ever trust his judgement again?
Pippa Crerar
Pippa Crerar is the Guardian’s political editor.
Some Labour figures are alarmed by the growing clamour for Keir Starmer’s resignation. One senior figure told the Guardian:
Those calling on PM to step down need to take a breath and think about the consequences. The public will not forgive us for spending months infighting instead of delivering for them. Keir is being honest about what he’s got wrong, and making changes to show how this government and politics generally can be a force for good.
Margaret Hodge, the Labour peer and former minister, told the World at One that she thought Keir Starmer was not minded to resign at this point. If he had been, Morgan McSweeney would not have resigned yesterday, she said. She said she did not want him to go because she wanted him to stay on to implement what was in the Labour manifesto, particularly with regard to cleaning up politics.
Labour MP Graham Stringer says Starmer ‘cannot survive this amount of chaos’
The Labour MP Graham Stringer has told Radio 4’s the World at One that he does not think Keir Starmer can survive as prime minister.
Interview just after the programme reported that Anas Sarwar is expected to call for Starmer’s resignation this afternoon, Stringer said:
I think the prime minister cannot survive this amount of chaos. I don’t want him to go now. I think we have to wait and see what the results for local governments in England, are and the elections in Wales and Scotland and that will give Labour MPs and the Labour party nationally time sitting through what is the right process.
Stringer said that he heard people on the media saying Starmer could survive. But, he went on:
When I come into the House of Commons and talk to everybody, I don’t hear that opinion at all. So it is clearly a question of when, not if.
Stringer admitted that he had not spoken to all 400-odd Labour MPs. But he said the ones he had spoken to, “from the top of the parliamentary Labour party to the newest members … are of one view”.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to call for Starmer’s resignation at 2.30pm press conference
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is to call on Keir Starmer to stand down as prime minister and Labour leader at a hastily arranged press conference in Glasgow.
Sarwar is furious that the prime minister’s repeated mistakes have heavily damaged support for Scottish Labour in the run-up to a crucial Scottish parliament election in May.
The latest opinion polls show Labour trailing in third place behind the Scottish National party and Reform, despite triumphing in the 2024 general election.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is expected to call for Keir Starmer’s resignation at his press conference at 2.30pm, Glenn Campbell, BBC Scotland’s political editor, is reporting. Campbell says:
Sarwar has hastily arranged a news conference in Glasgow … where he will set out his position on Keir Starmer’s leadership of the country and then of the Labour party.
Senior figures in the Scottish party have been saying in recent days that their chances in May’s elections would be improved if Starmer left office.
Sarwar would be the most senior Labour figures to call for Starmer’s resignation.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is holding a press conference in Glasgow at 2.30pm. There is speculation that he may use this to call for Keir Starmer’s resignation. Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, has just told the World at One that Sarwar’s office have been offered the chance to say he won’t be doing that, but that they’re not replying.
