Sarwar: I am not surprised people did not back my calls for Starmer to resign

The leader of Scottish Labour has said it did not surprise him that others in the party did not join his calls for Sir Keir Starmer to resign.

Anas Sarwar also said the decision to call for Sir Keir to quit hurt him on a personal level, saying there was “no point pretending there wasn’t personal pain, but I did what I did and I stand by it”.

Mr Sarwar called on the Prime Minister to quit in February, saying there had been “too many mistakes” from No 10.

Since the Labour Party’s landslide victory in the 2024 UK general election, Scottish Labour’s polling numbers have plummeted, with some putting it in third place behind Reform UK.

Speaking to wrestler Grado, who is interviewing the main party leaders in Scotland ahead of the Holyrood election in May, Mr Sarwar said his decision was hurtful for both him and the Prime Minister.

But he insisted he made the right call, despite those in the party down south choosing not to back his call, putting him at odds with the party’s Scottish MPs.

He told the Two Doors Down actor: “Apart from my core team, I didn’t tell people.

“Obviously, I had lots of conversations with lots of people but I wasn’t surprised about what happened afterwards.

“The reason why I wasn’t surprised by what happened afterwards was because I think too many people make the calculation that I did what I did because I thought it would mean something happening in Westminster.

“To be honest with you, my idea behind it, my thought process behind it wasn’t ‘What does it mean for Westminster?’ It was, ‘What does it mean for Scotland?'”

The Scottish Labour leader said Scots “deserve to know what my standards are, what I’m willing to do, and what I would do differently”.

“Genuinely, I was prioritising Scotland, demonstrating that was my loyalty,” he said.

“That was my priority, rather than what is a really close friendship I have with Keir Starmer.

“That’s why it was painful on a personal level.”

Mr Sarwar said he still liked and respected Sir Keir, calling him a “man of integrity”, but said he “had to be honest” about Labour’s mistakes.

He said he did not regret his calls, which failed to result in other senior figures in the party backing them.

Mr Sarwar added: “You’d expect him to be angry. You’d expect him to be hurt.

“The point I made too is I get it will be painful for him, will be hurtful for him, and I’m not gonna pretend it’s not more painful or more hurtful for him, but given that I’ve got a personal relationship with him, a friendship with him, it was really painful for me as well.”

On Monday, calls for Sir Keir to resign intensified after it emerged officials cleared Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US despite the peer failing security vetting.

The SNP, the Tories, Reform and the Liberal Democrats have all called for him to step down.