Anas Sarwar needs to create some distance from hostile UK Labour policies and the SNP

Scottish Labour needs to create some distance with their UK colleagues, as well as the SNP.

Anas Sarwar needs to set out, hastily, where Scottish Labour stands on the major political issues - or risk voters failing to see a reason to replace the SNP with his party.

The Scottish Labour leader has been quick to pick holes in the SNP’s time in office at Holyrood, but is yet to bring forward his prospectus for how he would do things differently if he was to become the next first minister in 2026.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar | PA

A flurry of policy car crashes since entering Downing Street with a whopping majority and a refusal to paint a picture that Labour can solve the dire economic situation has left Sir Keir Starmer with a palpable confidence issue. And it could have dire consequences for Mr Sarwar.

The UK Labour government should have an abundance of self-esteem given its huge majority and will likely not face the public in a Westminster election until 2029.

READ MORE: John Curtice suggests polling lifeline as Labour's Anas Sarwar confronted by 'impossible' task

But the party appears to be gazing gormlessly at the polls and moving away from the principles that arguably helped it secure power.

Labour’s obsession with economic growth, forced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves strictly following the fiscal rules set by the previous Tory government, risks the party’s vows on energy and climate being watered down.

The party is also pushing a narrative that cutting the number of people who come to the UK is a top priority. There are many reasons for this - including Brexit-supporting voters, largely in the north of England, who returned to Labour with an expectation the party is “tough on immigration”.

According to recent polling Nigel Farage, above, and Reform UK are set to take more seats than the Scottish Conservatives, says Angus Robertson

Immigration has been at the forefront of Westminster politics for the last few weeks, partly driven by the soar in support for Reform and also due to Labour’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill making it through the House of Commons.

The legislation sets out new powers to tackle organised crime associated with small boat crossings and would allow potentially indefinite detention for asylum seekers while new guidance would effectively ban them from ever obtaining British citizenship.

It is difficult to argue that Labour is doing much differently to the Conservatives’ hostile immigration policies.

READ MORE: Surge in immigration raids and arrests across Scotland under Labour

The footage the Home Office has released, boasting of people being deported from the UK, is in stark contrast to the attitude of many Scots to the resistance on Kenmure Street in Glasgow in 2021.

Hundreds of people turned up to join the protest against forced evictions in Glasgow.

This is another headache for Mr Sarwar, delivered by his party colleagues at Westminster.

Research from the Diffley Partnership for its Understanding Scotland economy tracker shows only 14 per cent of Scots see immigration as one of their top three issues. But that proportion has steadily increased since the spring of 2023.

Scotland has its own immigration needs - the country, unlike England, is facing a gaping hole in its working age population, which can only be rectified by increasing immigration.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) | Getty Images

The Scottish Labour leader has started to tell voters where he stands this week by backing a host of popular policies championed by the SNP, including free tuition fees, prescriptions and bus passes.

While this is a wise move, given the popularity of these policies, without the rest of Labour’s offer to voters being set out, it’s impossible to see any dividing lines with the SNP that Mr Sarwar will need if he has any chance of forming a government.