Starmer and Sarwar can still work together, Scottish Secretary claims

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar can still work with Prime Minister Keir Starmer despite calling for him to quit, the Scottish Secretary has claimed.

Douglas Alexander said there had been a "sincere and genuine disagreement" between the pair but insisted they were focused on May's Holyrood election.

In a dramatic move on Monday, Sarwar said the situation in Downing Street was "not good enough" and that "too many mistakes" had been made at the top of government.

Starmer has said he will not quit, telling Labour MPs: "Every fight I've been in, I have won."

Senior Labour figures publicly backed the prime minister following Sarwar's criticism.

Scottish Secretary Alexander, who said he had spoken to Sarwar and Starmer the previous evening, insisted there was a "willingness to work together".

The cabinet secretary said the prime minister had been "very clear he remains determined that Anas Sarwar is the first minister of Scotland".

Asked if he believed that Starmer would still be prime minister at the end of the year, Alexander replied: "Yes."

'Honest and genuine disagreement'

The Scottish Secretary said: "The prime minister has my support. I believe the prime minister has recognised things have to be learned and also that we have to change how we have done government in the first 18 months in office.

"And in that sense, I think there was, to put it mildly, an honest and genuine disagreement yesterday followed by a full and frank airing of positions.

"But the reaction by yesterday evening from across the party was, let's get back to work."

Alexander added that the Labour government "should have told our story better" and that while "some mistakes have been made, to err is to be human".

After a landslide victory north of the border in the 2024 general election, Scottish Labour had high hopes of challenging the SNP in May's Holyrood election.

However, Alexander admitted that recent polls were looking "tough" for Labour, with the party slipping behind Reform into third place.

Sarwar, hoping to spark a shift in momentum, took the bold step of calling for the prime minister to quit.

Sarwar said his decision to call for Starmer to go was "not easy and not without pain", adding that the prime minister was a "decent man" but that his "first loyalty" was to Scotland.

With the election looming, the Scottish Labour leader said he needed to "decide what I'm willing to accept and what I'm willing to tolerate".

He added that the UK government's achievements had been "drowned out" by successive scandals.

But even as Sarwar spoke, senior Labour figures pledged their support to the prime minister.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the public had "given Keir a huge mandate only 18 months ago" adding: "They expect us to get on with the job."

Health Secretary Wes Streeting and former Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner - both touted as potential leadership challengers - also gave their backing to the prime minister.

In a meeting with Labour MPs on Monday evening, Starmer said: "I have had my detractors every step along the way, and I've got them now.

"But I'll tell you this, after having fought so hard for the chance to change our country, I'm not prepared to walk away from my mandate and my responsibility to my country, or to plunge us into chaos, as others have done."

Alloa and Grangemouth MP Brian Leishman – who was suspended from the parliamentary Labour party for four months last year for rebelling against the government – agreed that the prime minister's performance had not been "good enough".

He told Radio Scotland Breakfast: "Anas was honest, upfront and clear on his position.

"That can't ever be represented as a miscalculation. It was the right decision for Scotland, that chimes with the conversations I'm having on the doorsteps."

He added: "The Labour government need a set of policies that will truly transform Scottish and British society.

"Is Keir Starmer doing that job at the moment? The answer is no and we have to look at a change of leadership."

In calling for Keir Starmer to stand down, Anas Sarwar revealed a fundamental breach in his political relationship with the prime minister.

He has not taken back a word of what he said. If he did that would undermine his own credibility.

Yet the Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander has said it was nothing more than a "sincere and genuine disagreement" from which both men are ready to move on to concentrate on fighting the SNP.

His interview on Radio Scotland Breakfast was smooth and designed to calm the storm.

The fact that he has been called on to perform this role on numerous occasions in recent months tells its own story.

A series of blunders and about turns have marked Starmer's leadership and many in Scottish Labour think it is wrecking their Holyrood election chances.

They fear that if Starmer stays they will struggle to close the gap with the SNP and Sarwar's judgement is that if he goes there is at least the chance of changing the political weather.

Whatever happens it seems to me that Downing Street drama will continue to suck some of the oxygen from the Scottish campaign Sarwar wants to fight.

There will either be questions over how the two men can possibly work together should Sarwar become first minister or a new distraction of a leadership process to find a new PM if Starmer's forced out sooner rather than later.