Voting for Nigel Farage’s occasion will hold the SNP in energy for TEN years, warns Scots Labour chief Anas Sarwar
Voting for Nigel Farage’s party will keep the SNP in power for another decade, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has warned.
The MSP, who last week called for Keir Starmer’s resignation, has told the Scottish Mail on Sunday that voting for Reform would allow the SNP to cling on rather than force a change in Holyrood.
Mr Sarwar acknowledged voters’ ‘anger’ with his counterparts in the UK Labour party but said: ‘I’d ask you to look past your anger at Labour – only we can beat the SNP in the seats needed to end 20 years of nationalist misrule.
‘The truth is that only Scottish Labour can beat the SNP – Reform will only help them cling onto power for another miserable decade.
‘The choice we have in three months’ time is not without consequence. The election in May is about one thing – removing the SNP from office.
‘We need a First Minister who will be honest – that isn’t what we have with John Swinney and this rotten SNP government.’
The Scottish Labour leader addressed his bold decision to call for the Prime Minister to step down on Monday, and revealed it was prompted by a media scrum in which he was bombarded with questions about Peter Mandelson rather than about the real issues he felt were impacting the lives of Scots today.
Anas Sarwar has said the election in May is about removing the SNP from power
Mr Sarwar said voting for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party would allow the SNP to cling on rather than force a change in government at Holyrood
The MSP said he had a ‘lightbulb moment’ when he left the Holyrood debating chamber after quizzing John Swinney about his government’s failure over the infections scandal at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
He said: ‘I was faced with a barrage of questions from journalists, not about the QEUH, those grieving families or the government’s attempt to conceal the truth, but about Peter Mandelson…I realised it wasn’t credible to call out the lies and dishonesty of John Swinney and his party while having to face questions about the lies and dishonesty of Peter Mandelson.’
Mr Sarwar claims his party are the only ones with a credible chance of blocking the SNP’s return to government in May, rather than Reform.
The threat of lost votes posed by Nigel Farage’s party has been brought into sharp focus by polls in the run up to this year’s Holyrood elections.
The most recent – a survey by More in Common last week – showed Reform in second place with 20 per cent of the list vote, ahead of Labour in third on 19 per cent, the Liberal Democrats on 13 per cent, the Conservatives 12 per cent and Greens 9 per cent.
While the SNP still has a lead on the constituency vote on 35 per cent, this is two percentage points lower than in September.
Reform meanwhile is on 19 per cent, with Labour on 18 per cent, the Conservatives 11 per cent and Liberal Democrats 10 per cent.
Analysis by Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, estimated that the result would mean the SNP would win 59 seats – six short of a majority – with Reform and Labour on 19, the Lib Dems 13, Conservatives 11 and Greens eight.
Sir John also said that ‘the potential pathway to the SNP winning the election has been paved by the rise of Reform’.
Mr Sarwar said his calls for the Prime Minister to quit illustrated that he would ‘always be straight with people’ and ‘will always do what is right for Scotland even if that means difficult decisions for me personally.’
The MSP added: ‘Unlike the SNP, I won’t dress things up, hide behind process, or say one thing in public and another in private.’
