by Kevin Meagher
What was he thinking? Anas Sarwar’s ‘Captain Oates/taking one for the team’ moment yesterday must surely come with consequences. The Scottish Labour Leader’s decision to shank Keir Starmer, only for the PM to look remarkably unscathed by the close of day, should now lead to Sarwar’s resignation.
As he damned the Prime Minister with faint praise (he was a ‘decent man’), Sarwar complained that the ‘situation in Downing Street’ was ‘not good enough’ with ‘too many mistakes’ under Starmer’s leadership. (A change in tune from his conference speech last year, when Sarwar lavished praise on him as a PM ‘that understands Scotland’).
How on earth can Sarwar continue in his role? He seemed to think, or was led to believe, that other resignations would follow his pre-emptive strike, with chatter that Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan would do likewise, presumably triggering a slew of cabinet resignations, thus precipitating Starmer’s own.
Only it didn’t work out like that. At all. Feverish television news coverage up until Sarwar’s speech – given solemnly in front of an unfeasibly gigantic Scottish Saltaire backdrop – deflated over the course of the afternoon, as minister after minister tweeted their abiding allegiance to the current occupant of Number Ten.
The coup, such as it was, was over in half a news cycle – with embarrassed political journalists hurriedly reducing their hyperbole from DEFCON 1 when it became clear the Prime Minister would survive. All of which left Sarwar looking like the overexuberant uncle at a family wedding leading a solo conga.
The only realistic course is for him to immediately quit as Scottish leader. Its moot whether or not he can do any more harm to Labour’s position north of the border. The party is languishing in a poor third place already, just weeks away from all-out Scottish parliamentary elections – behind the rejuvenated SNP and Reform. Sarwar doesn’t add anything to the ticket. Not after yesterday.
His relationship with Scottish Secretary, Douglas Alexander – a Starmer loyalist and co-leader of the Scottish campaign – is now hopelessly compromised. The media will love stoking divisions between the two men until election day.
I’m sure we can expect Kemi Badenoch to recite chunks of his speech tomorrow at Prime Minister’s Questions (if she doesn’t opt to read Wes Streeting’s chummy texts with Peter Mandelson).
Whatever confederates Sarwar thought he was in league with quickly abandoned him. His putsch failed. He is cast as Holyrood’s Lee Harvey Oswald. The price for recklessness and bad timing is generally the same in politics. The exit door. Anas Sarwar should now walk through it.
Kevin Meagher is associate editor of Labour Uncut
Tags: Anas Sarwar, Douglas Alexander, Keir Starmer, Kevin Meagher, Labour leadership
