<\/p>\n
Anas Sarwar has shown he has a ruthless streak. Once one of Keir Starmer\u2019s staunchest cheerleaders and allies, the Scottish Labour leader is now the most senior party figure to call for him to quit.<\/a><\/p>\n Despite anger among his colleagues and criticism that his decision to demand Starmer stands down was \u201cidiotic, immature and self-defeating\u201d, Sarwar\u2019s political calculation is blunt and uncompromising.<\/p>\n Sarwar and his advisers, having watched Scottish Labour\u2019s polling figures plummet as the disarray inside the UK government deepened into chaos and then crisis, believe the risk of calling on Starmer to quit is justified.<\/p>\n Sarwar, by delivering Labour\u2019s best national-level result in the 2024 general election \u2013 winning 35.3% of the vote, compared with Labour\u2019s 33.7% at the UK-wide level \u2013 managed to double his party\u2019s support levels in a matter of months. That has now evaporated. Scottish Labour sits at 18% in the polls.<\/p>\n Scottish Labour\u2019s leadership have been in crisis talks since the issue of Peter Mandelson\u2019s ties to Jeffrey Epstein grew into a fully fledged scandal last week. But Sarwar\u2019s call for Starmer to quit is freighted with risks.<\/p>\n If Starmer limps on in the lead-up to Scottish elections in May or Labour descends into civil war, Sarwar\u2019s failure to deliver the coup de grace will be used by his opponents in a campaign to claim he is weak or, worse, ignored.<\/p>\n