Starmer claims 'huge respect' for Sarwar despite resignation call

Sir Keir Starmer has expressed "huge respect" for Anas Sarwar little more than 24 hours after the Scottish Labour leader urged the prime minister to quit.

Hoping to turn around unfavourable polling figures ahead of May's Holyrood election, Sarwar dramatically announced on Monday that the situation in Downing Street was "not good enough".

In response, Starmer gave his "100%" backing to the Scottish Labour leader.

He also told reporters Sarwar would make an "incredible" first minister.

While several Scottish Labour MSPs and backbench MPs have sided with Sarwar, senior Labour figures have publicly backed the prime minister.

At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Starmer said "the whole of the Labour Party wants Anas Sarwar to become first minister and will fight for a Labour government in Scotland", according to Downing Street.

Speaking later, the prime minister told reporters: "I've got a huge respect for Anas Sarwar. Obviously, he made his views known yesterday.

"But I want to be really clear that I'm 100% supportive of Anas Sarwar to be the first minister in Scotland, he'd be an incredible first minister and I support him 100% without reservation."

He said Labour had to change but that the party had "pulled together".

Starmer said he was "absolutely crystal clear" that it needed to fight for the people who do not get "the respect, the dignity, the chance they deserve in life".

He added the party "needs to change" and be out there making that argument rather than "talking internally to ourselves".

Asked whether he would lead Labour into the next election, Starmer replied: "Yes, I will", adding that he had a five-year mandate.

Earlier, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander insisted the pair were willing to work together.

After speaking to both individually the previous evening, he told the BBC's Radio Scotland Breakfast programme: "These are both individuals who have strong and clear opinions, but who do not bear grudges."

The cabinet secretary said the prime minister had been "very clear he remains determined that Anas Sarwar is the first minister of Scotland".

Asked if he believed that Starmer would still be prime minister at the end of the year, Alexander replied: "Yes."

The Scottish Secretary said: "The prime minister has my support. I believe the prime minister has recognised things have to be learned and also that we have to change how we have done government in the first 18 months in office.

"And in that sense, I think there was, to put it mildly, an honest and genuine disagreement yesterday followed by a full and frank airing of positions.

"But the reaction by yesterday evening from across the party was, let's get back to work."

Alexander added that the Labour government "should have told our story better" and that while "some mistakes have been made, to err is to be human".

After a landslide victory north of the border in the 2024 general election, Scottish Labour had high hopes of challenging the SNP in May's Holyrood election.

However Alexander admitted recent polls were looking "tough", with Labour slipping behind Reform into third place.

Alexander is co-chair of Scottish Labour's election campaign with deputy leader Jackie Baillie, who has backed Sarwar's call for the prime minister to quit.

A senior party source told BBC Scotland News this arrangement would continue despite the co-chairs taking opposite sides in the debate over Starmer's future.

At a press conference on Monday, Sarwar criticised the appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US, despite his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Scottish Labour leader said his decision to call for Starmer to go was "not easy and not without pain", adding that the prime minister was a "decent man" but that his "first loyalty" was to Scotland.

With the election looming, Sarwar said he needed to "decide what I'm willing to accept and what I'm willing to tolerate".

He added that the UK government's achievements had been "drowned out" by successive scandals.

Sarwar has not spoken to the media on Tuesday, but posted a campaign video on social media saying Scotland "could not risk a third decade of the SNP in power".

Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan initially stayed silent following Sarwar's statement.

But she later backed the prime minister, saying "the country needs stability in an age of instability", while raising concerns about the appointment of Lord Mandelson.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the public had "given Keir a huge mandate only 18 months ago" adding: "They expect us to get on with the job."

Health Secretary Wes Streeting and former Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner - both touted as potential leadership challengers - also gave their backing to the prime minister.

Alloa and Grangemouth MP Brian Leishman – who was suspended from the parliamentary Labour party for four months last year for rebelling against the government – said that the prime minister's performance had not been "good enough".

He told Radio Scotland Breakfast: "The Labour government need a set of policies that will truly transform Scottish and British society.

"Is Keir Starmer doing that job at the moment? The answer is no and we have to look at a change of leadership."

That view has been echoed by Falkirk MP Euan Stainbank.

But several of his Westminster colleagues - including ministers Kirsty McNeill, Ian Murray and Michael Shanks - have backed the prime minister.

Scottish Labour MPs held talks on Tuesday evening. Afterwards, the group's chairman Richard Baker said the prime minister's position had been "confirmed" by the cabinet and the parliamentary party.

He added: "We accept that there have been mistakes, that's why things now have to change and improve.

"This has been a difficult week, but the Scottish group is united in continuing to repair the damage of 14 years of Tory rule and is fully committed to electing a Scottish Labour government in Holyrood and Anas Sarwar as our first minister."

In calling for Keir Starmer to stand down, Anas Sarwar revealed a fundamental breach in his political relationship with the prime minister.

He has not taken back a word of what he said. If he did that would undermine his own credibility.

Yet the Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander has said it was nothing more than a "sincere and genuine disagreement" from which both men are ready to move on to concentrate on fighting the SNP.

His interview on Radio Scotland Breakfast was smooth and designed to calm the storm.

The fact that he has been called on to perform this role on numerous occasions in recent months tells its own story.

A series of blunders and about turns have marked Starmer's leadership and many in Scottish Labour think it is wrecking their Holyrood election chances.

They fear that if Starmer stays they will struggle to close the gap with the SNP and Sarwar's judgement is that if he goes there is at least the chance of changing the political weather.

Whatever happens it seems to me that Downing Street drama will continue to suck some of the oxygen from the Scottish campaign Sarwar wants to fight.

There will either be questions over how the two men can possibly work together should Sarwar become first minister or a new distraction of a leadership process to find a new PM if Starmer's forced out sooner rather than later.