Sarwar under pressure as voters reject Labour – Daily Business

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will today accuse the SNP of failing to use “record” funding to improve services despite his own party’s poor performance south of the border and as a new poll puts Labour behind Reform in Scotland.

Mr Sarwar will tell delegates at the annual conference in Liverpool that “things are getting better with Labour in England” while the SNP government is failing Scotland through financial mismanagement.

However, a new poll reveals the extent to which Labour is failing to prove its credentials, while the SNP is extending its lead and a majority of voters back independence.

The Norstat poll shows the SNP is on course to win the Scottish Parliament election next year with 34% of the vote – 17 points ahead of Labour which has slumped to third place on 17% behind Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on 20%.

At UK level a poll by the More in Common think tank, suggests Mr Farage would secure an outright majority in the House of Commons, if an election was held today.

The Norstat poll reveals that 53% of Scottish voters said they would vote for independence, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Sarwar are the least popular leaders in Scotland with negative approval ratings of minus 42 and minus 21 respectively.

The poll shows Sir Keir is now less popular in Scotland than both Mr Farage and Donald Trump.

SNP depute leader Keith Brown said: “Voters are angry that Keir Starmer has broken his promises. We were told we would be better off, but under Starmer the UK has gone from bad to worse.

“The cost of living is soaring, UK unemployment is at a four-year high, the UK economy has been downgraded, public finances have deteriorated – and families are struggling as energy bills, food prices and inflation all rise.

“It’s no wonder Keir Starmer is a lame duck leader, with his own colleagues plotting to oust him, when he has so badly betrayed the trust that voters placed in him.

“While the bitterly-divided Labour Party is in crisis, the SNP is focused on delivering for Scotland and offering the opportunity of a fresh start from Broken Brexit Britain with independence.”

With the Labour leadership north and south of the border suffering badly in the polls, Mr Sarwar is now facing some crucial decisions on how to handle his campaign for next year’s Scottish elections.

Party sources say he will seek to distance himself from tarnished Sir Keir, having previously seen their partnership as a winning hand.

However, his key campaign issue – Scotland’s declining standards in health, education, crime and housing – leave the Scottish leader exposed to hypocrisy as the Labour government in Westminster is facing challenges on the same issues.

He will brand the SNP “tired, knackered and out of touch” and accuse the party of wasting the record funding that Labour provided to Holyrood.

Today he will claim that “things are getting better with Labour in England, the same is not the case in Scotland,” a statement that is likely to raise eyebrows, not in Scotland, but also in England where Sir Keir Starmer is accused of overseeing continuing problems across public services, higher energy and food bills, anti-social behaviour, a shoplifting epidemic, low economic growth and a failure to tackle illegal immigration.

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: “This farcical notion that Scottish Labour represent genuine change is blatantly false given that on a host of issues you can’t fit a cigarette paper between them and the SNP.

“Anas Sarwar is gravely mistaken if he thinks the public will believe that he’ll be any different. He recklessly backed the SNP’s wasteful gender reforms as well as their illiberal Hate Crime Act showing just how detached he is from the real world.

“How can he promise a new direction when Scottish Labour have been part of Holyrood’s cosy left-wing consensus that has failed Scotland for over 25 years?

“Scots deserve better than this endless litany of broken promises. The Scottish Conservatives are committed to delivering common sense plans to cut tax and wasteful spending whilst directing taxpayer’s money to frontline services.”

See also:

Reform on course for outright majority as Labour vote collapses