Scottish Labour conference: My political destiny is bound together with Keir Starmer, Anas Sarwar says

The Scottish Labour leader said ‘nothing is in the bag’ when it comes to the general election

Anas Sarwar has said his political destiny is bound together with Sir Keir Starmer and a UK Labour general election victory.

The Scottish Labour leader said Sir Keir winning the general election was "fundamentally important" for his chances of becoming the next first minister of Scotland. It came as he warned "nothing is in the bag" and his party has to "keep our feet on the ground" and do the hard work to secure votes.

Mr Sarwar was speaking to The Scotsman ahead of the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, which kicks off today.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. Picture: John Linton/PA Wire

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Elsewhere, he suggested Labour should never have pledged to spend £28 billion a year on green investment, arguing large numbers "mean very little to the electorate".

The party was recently criticised for ditching the figure, but Mr Sarwar said the U-turn was "a demonstration of how you can build trust in politics" by being honest. Polls indicate Labour is on course to win a landslide victory at the coming general election.

But Mr Sarwar said: "Nothing is in the bag. Not a single vote has been cast in the general election campaign. Yes, we've had a really significant win in terms of the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, but that's one snapshot in time and none of those votes count towards a general election.

"And so we've got to keep our feet on the ground. We've got to do the hard work, and with energy and humility continue to reach out to people across Scotland and try to persuade them – one, that we need change, and I think Scotland's already persuaded on that, to be honest, about the need for change.

"But persuade them that the vehicle for that change is the Scottish Labour Party and that Scotland can play its full part in helping to elect a Labour Government, to boot out this rotten Tory Government and to maximise Scotland's influence by electing MPs who will sit in Government, making decisions for Scotland and the betterment of Scotland, rather than electing MPs who chose to sit opposite a Labour Government and throw stones."

Mr Sarwar said Labour was “around the tipping point” in Scotland. "Psephologists often talk about 35 per cent in terms of share of the vote being the tipping point in Scottish politics,” he said, sipping a coffee in a hotel beside the party’s conference venue in Glasgow.

"I think we're around that tipping point, but I don't think that tipping point is in the bag, and I don't want that tipping point to be the limit of our ambition. So we've got a lot of work to do to continue to persuade people across the country that Labour is the answer."

Asked which seats he was particularly targeting at the coming general election, he said: "I think a lot is made of, in English terms, the red wall. I think you can probably make a large tell around the Central Belt of Scotland as well. I actually think there's a lot of similarity between the Central Belt of Scotland and the red wall of England in terms of the demographic, in terms of some of the issues that drive people and the concerns they have, and the aspirations they have for their families.

"Look, we're not going to limit our ambition in terms of where we want to reach out, but I think key areas that people will look at come election night will be, of course, the Central Belt, whether that be Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Glasgow, the two Lanarkshires, Edinburgh, Lothians, Midlothian, East Lothian, and indeed Torcuil Crichton's very own local area of the Western Isles [Mr Crichton is a former journalist who is contesting the Na h-Eileanan an Iar seat], and Fife. I think these are all places people will naturally look to where there has been a traditional Labour representation and Labour presence."

Labour attracted criticism last week after ditching its pledge to spend £28bn a year on its green investment plan. Asked how people can trust the party in the wake of this, Mr Sarwar said: "I actually think the position we have got to is a demonstration of how you can build trust in politics. I think the worst thing for us to have done was – first of all, I think we should have always focused on the outcome, rather than the input.

"I think large numbers, to be honest, mean very little to the electorate. What they're interested in is ‘what does it mean for me, what does it mean for my family, what does it mean for our local economy?’ And that's why I think we always should have concentrated on the outcomes rather than the inputs."

He added: "I think there's a broader point which is, these outcomes are hugely relevant to people here in Scotland. And I would much rather we were going into an election promising something that we had every confidence we could deliver, and therefore take the pain in opposition, rather than going into an election knowing that this is something we couldn't deliver because of the economic conditions and then rowing back on it after you had used that policy as a way of winning an election campaign.

"I think actually that would have been the untrustworthy and wrong thing to do, and when there's already so much distrust in our politics because of what's happening both in Holyrood and in Westminster, I don't think we should perpetuate that. So I think a bit of honesty is the right thing for us to do."

Mr Sarwar said a Labour general election win was "fundamentally important" for a Holyrood election victory in 2026.

"People often reference a very close relationship I have with Keir Starmer, whether that be a personal relationship, a deep friendship, a mutual trust, a mutual respect – and all of that is absolutely true,” he said. “We have a very, very strong bond and a strong shared political interest.

"But if all those things didn't bind us together, actually, our political destinies in many ways are bound together as well. I believe that the election of Keir Starmer as our prime minister and a UK Labour Government is a key stepping stone towards an election campaign in 2026 and, I hope, a Scottish Labour victory coming out of the 2026 election.

"Likewise for him, he knows that his pathway to Downing Street requires us to make significant gains here in Scotland and for us to perform much better than we have done over the past number of years.

"So in that sense, alongside that symbiotic co-ambition, that itself is a great driver of that programme, as well as the very close personal relationship and political alignment."