{"id":289070,"date":"2026-02-09T17:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289070\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:26:08","slug":"scottish-labour-leader-anas-sarwar-calls-for-keir-starmer-to-step-down-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289070\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar calls for Keir Starmer to step down \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour<\/a> leader, has called on Keir Starmer<\/a> to stand down, throwing the UK prime minister\u2019s leadership of the country into serious peril.<\/p>\n

At a press conference in Glasgow on Monday, the senior Labour politician said: \u201cThe distraction needs to end, and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarwar said there had been \u201ctoo many mistakes\u201d by Downing Street since Starmer came to power and that while the prime minister was a \u201cdecent man\u201d he was undermining Labour\u2019s ability to win the Scottish parliament elections in May.<\/p>\n

The Scottish party leader is said to be furious that the UK government\u2019s decisions have severely damaged support for Scottish Labour, with the SNP\u2019s John Swinney now appearing to be on course to stay in Bute House.<\/p>\n

Recent opinion polls show Labour trailing in third place behind the Scottish National Party and Reform. Sarwar and his advisers have calculated it will be impossible for Starmer to recover after the scandal over Peter Mandelson<\/a>\u2019s links to Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some Labour backbenchers had already called for Starmer to take responsibility for his decision in late 2024 to appoint Mandelson. That call was made despite \u2013 as Starmer now concedes \u2013 knowing Mandelson had maintained ties with the paedophile financier Epstein for years after his 2008 conviction in a state prostitution case involving a minor.<\/p>\n

\"ScottishScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar speaking to the media on Monday. Photograph: Robert Perry\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Sarwar\u2019s call comes as a serious blow to the prime minister, who is fighting to reassert control over his party after accepting the resignation of his closest adviser, Morgan McSweeney, amid anger over the Cork man\u2019s role in the appointment of Mandelson as US ambassador<\/p>\n

McSweeney\u2019s exit was followed on Monday by the resignation of Starmer\u2019s director of communications Tim Allan. <\/p>\n

Senior Labour sources said McSweeney\u2019s departure had left the prime minister dangerously exposed as he headed towards a series of electoral challenges \u2013 including the Scottish elections \u2013 that could determine his political fate.<\/p>\n

Sarwar told the press conference that his first priority was to Scotland and that he did not want to \u201csacrifice\u201d the country to a third decade of an SNP government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why the distraction needs to end, and the leadership in Downing Street has to change. It is so obvious that we desperately need change in Scotland and in three months\u2019 time the opportunity to get rid of a failing SNP government is one that is too important to be missed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow the failures at the heart of Downing Street to mean the failures continue here in Scotland, because the election in May is not without consequence for the lives of Scots.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, was the first cabinet minister to publicly back Starmer, after hours of silence from his senior ministerial team.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeir Starmer won a massive mandate 18 months ago, for five years to deliver on Labour\u2019s manifesto that we all stood on. We should let nothing distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the prime minister in doing that,\u201d he posted on X.<\/p>\n

Douglas Alexander, the Scotland secretary, who works closely with Sarwar, said: \u201cAnas has reached his own decision and I respect that. My job \u2013 as Anas acknowledged today \u2013 is to make sure Scotland\u2019s voice is heard in cabinet. My focus remains on doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was an immediate backlash among some Scottish Labour MPs, who have privately been among the most critical of the prime minister, with one telling the Guardian: \u201cAnas does not speak for us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cabinet ministers including Rachel Reeves, the chancellor; Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary; and John Healey, the defence secretary, rallied round the prime minister, although the support of some was more muted.<\/p>\n

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, who is known to have leadership ambitions of his own, told Sky News that although the atmosphere was febrile, \u201cKeir Starmer doesn\u2019t need to resign.\u201d He added: \u201cIt has not been the best week for the government … Give Keir a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downing Street said Starmer was not resigning and would be \u201cconcentrating on the job in hand\u201d. His official spokesperson described his mood as \u201cupbeat\u201d and \u201cconfident\u201d as he addressed No 10 staff.<\/p>\n

Sources close to the prime minister have suggested that he spent the weekend reflecting on his future. But the spokesperson said: \u201cThat is not the prime minister who appeared in front of staff this morning. It is very clear that he remains determined to tackle the job in hand.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Starmer battles to save his premiership after resignation of Cork man Morgan McSweeneyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mark Paul: What’s next for Keir Starmer and the Labour Party?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has called on Keir Starmer to stand down, throwing the UK prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,11111,1194,1193,43,15033,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-289070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour-party-uk","tag-news","tag-peter-mandelson","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}