Anas Sarwar rules out 'any kind' of Holyrood coalition and says he would lead a minority government

The Scottish Labour leader also admitted his party had been “arrogant” in 2007.

Anas Sarwar has ruled out a coalition and insisted Scottish Labour would govern as a minority government.

With a recent poll predicting the Scottish Labour leader could be the next First Minister, Mr Sarwar suggested his party would not seek a deal with any other party.

Speaking at a Tony Blair Institute event on Securing Scotland's Future during Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Mr Sarwar pointed to how Alex Salmond governed as the benchmark which Labour could follow.

Anas Sarwar takes part in a panel discussion at a fringe event about Securing Scotland's Future on day two of the Labour Party conference . Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

He said: “There will not be any kind of coalition, we are looking at 2026, we are still a long way, there’s still lots more work to do, lots more progress to make. We still have to set out what that 2026 election will mean in practice, around what the offer is, about how we transform Scotland.

“Every single institution is weaker after 16 years of SNP government. We will be looking to go into that election in our own right, so a minority Labour government.

“The SNP have done it before, and I think we wrongly viewed pre-2007 that we couldn’t do minority governments, so therefore got ourselves into difficulty.

“The SNP demonstrated, Alex Salmond demonstrated in 2007, you can have a nationalist minority in the government, and still form a minority government that is able to work on its own right and also where you can find issues of agreement, build a majority in the parliament to get things done.

“That is the kind of approach we would take, so on issues that we have a common thread with the SNP, around things around social justice, why wouldn’t they want to back individual ideas from a minority Labour government if it’s going to improve the life of people in Scotland.

“We will look to be a minority Labour government and look to challenge both the SNP and the Tories, ‘do you want to make things work for people in Scotland?’”.

Mr Sarwar was also asked about areas of divergence, with Scottish Labour taking different stances on things such as gender recognition and the two-child benefit cap.

The Glasgow MSP insisted the two bodies were deeply entwined and working together on policy, while also pointing to his “close friendship” with the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

He said: “We are already having joint meetings about election strategy, joint meetings about comms strategy, joint meetings around the manifesto, and already planning meetings about what happens day one after a Labour Government, and then planning the first 100 days of the government and then how that projects in Scotland.

“We are being detailed and doing the work to make sure we are fighting Scotland’s corner and making sure we have a real plan of delivery that’s going to transform lives in Scotland”.

The fringe event also saw Mr Sarwar compare the state of the SNP with Labour in 2007.

He said: “One of the accusations they made about the Labour party, which if we’re being honest with ourselves, you can’t say was entirely untrue, was that we had a Labour party that was arrogant on power, growing out of touch, and thought it was unbeatable.

“I look at the SNP now and I think they are all that and more”.