Sarwar promises ‘big, bold and meaningful change’ if Labour wins at Holyrood

Anas Sarwar said he is “determined” to deliver the first Labour government in Scotland for almost two decades as he promised “big, bold and meaningful change” if his party wins next May’s Holyrood elections.

The Scottish Labour leader pledged to create the country’s “newest emergency services”, dedicated to providing specialist care to those suffering from a mental health crisis.

This new Mental Health Emergency Response Service will help free up police officers’ time, he added, releasing up to 360 officers for frontline policing.

The pledges came as he urged voters not to use the Scottish election to pass judgment on Sir Keir Starmer’s government at Westminster.

“This election is not a protest,” Mr Sarwar insisted.

“It is a chance to elect a government to deliver for the people of Scotland.”

Promising he would lead “a government that works as hard as the people it serves”, Mr Sarwar added his party would also – if voted into power next May – deliver 9,000 new apprenticeships.

The commitments, outlined at a Scottish Labour police conference in Edinburgh, are part of the “new ideas, new energy and new solutions” he said that Labour offers.

As a result, Mr Sarwar argued, next May’s election will be a choice between “more failure, more incompetence and more waste” under John Swinney and the SNP and “big, bold and meaningful change with me and Scottish Labour”.

Speaking to party supporters, the Scottish Labour leader said voters could choose between “squandered opportunity, failing public services and economic stagnation with John Swinney or a new direction for Scotland with me”.

Despite some polls showing Reform could return more MSPs than Scottish Labour, Mr Sarwar insisted his party could “defeat” Nigel Farage’s.

While Reform “took the campaign into the gutter” in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, this year, Mr Sarwar said Labour had given then a “a drubbing that they will never forget” in that vote.

And he declared: “It is only Scottish Labour and our politics of change, of unity and hope that can defeat the poison of Reform.”

But most of his speech was focused on attacking the SNP who, he said, had delivered “division, incompetence and failure” since they came to power back in 2007.

As a result, he said, Scotland has an “NHS is in crisis, record numbers of homeless children” while “the economy has flatlined and our schools are in the midst of rising violence”.

This, Mr Sarwar said, showed that “the need for change and that new direction could not be clearer”.

He told supporters: “We all know that Scotland is a nation full of potential.

“But we need a government that is optimistic about its future.

“Not one that has failed time and time again.”

He insisted that tackling the “crisis” in mental health care was essential as part of efforts to fix “our precious NHS”.

Arguing that mental health services have “lagged behind other services” under the SNP, Mr Sarwar said his plans for a Mental Health Emergency Response Service would “help the thousands of Scots in need”.

Accessed by calling 999, he said that “specially trained paramedics and mental health ambulances” would be dispatched to help those in “crisis”, taking them to the “best place possible for ongoing care”.

As well as helping those in need, he said this “all day, all year-round emergency care for Scots in mental health crisis” would also relieve pressure on other public services.

With almost one in five incidents the police deal with related to mental health problems, Mr Sarwar said the move would help “restore community policing and get police back where they belong on Scotland’s streets”.

The Scottish Labour leader also pledged to “modernise the court system to stop the scandal of wasted police time in our justice system” – saying action here needed after Chief Constable Jo Farrell said that approximately 420 officers a day are in courts across Scotland.

Mr Sarwar also promised a Labour government would set up a trauma support service to “support our police officers and cut the soaring levels of police officer absences”.

To help Scotland’s young people, he said “boosting funding for apprenticeships” would guarantee that every qualified applicant in priority sectors would have a place.

And, along with new apprenticeships, he promised to “fundamentally re-wire our skills system so that it supports young Scots”.