WORST LABOUR POLL IN 22 YEARS
Blow to new leader Sarwar – billed as man to reinvigorate party – but he vows to become ‘credible’ alternative to SNP
THE number of Scottish Labour MSPs has fallen to an all-time low – in a severe blow for new leader Anas Sarwar.
When he took up the reins only ten weeks ago, Mr Sarwar pledged to reinvigorate the party.
But yesterday’s results were the worst for Labour in the 22-year history of the Scottish parliament.
The party remains in third place at Holyrood but now has only 22 MSPs.
It was hit by major disappointments early on: on Friday, one of the first key marginal results of the night saw Labour lose its former heartland in East Lothian.
Next, Mr Sarwar lost his battle to unseat Nicola Sturgeon in the Glasgow Southside constituency.
But while many were left waiting for an uplift in regional list votes, the good news never came.
Last night, Mr Sarwar, who returns to Holyrood on the Glasgow regional list, defended his party and pledged to work day and night to make it a ‘credible’ alternative to the SNP.
He said: ‘If you look at where we were ten weeks ago to where we got to now, I think even my harshest critics would accept that we ran a positive campaign, an energetic campaign.
‘We’ve led on big ideas and we’ve made remarkable progress compared to where we were.
‘I think there’s a hope and optimism around our party and people can proudly say they vote Labour again.
‘But we are on a journey and we have a long way to go, but we are building a credible alternative to the SNP.’
Previously, the party’s worst result at the Scottish parliament was in 2016 under the leadership of Kezia Dugdale, when Labour won only 24 seats. At the time, critics slammed her for failing to stress the importance of the Union enough – despite the constitution being a major issue for voters.
By contrast, Mr Sarwar made it his mission to firmly rule out a second independence referendum throughout his campaign.
He even sacked one candidate, Hollie Cameron, who was standing for Glasgow Kelvin, after she wrote an article sympathising with separatism in a proNationalist newspaper.
John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair, praised Mr Sarwar’s approach to the campaign and said he had a ‘Bidenesque’ quality that would heal Scottish Labour. Speaking to the BBC, he said: ‘The impact of Anas Sarwar on Labour’s fortunes has been good, it’s been positive... he had a Bidenesque quality at times.
‘He was always about healing, not trying to divide the country on the basis of a future referendum, the past referendum, but it was about building for the future.’ On Friday, Labour lost East Lothian – long a stronghold – to the SNP. Meanwhile, Mr Sarwar failed to oust Ms Sturgeon in Glasgow Southside where she maintained an almost 10,000 vote majority.
However, he did manage to increase the party’s share of the vote, with a swing of nearly 5 per cent.
After the result Mr Sarwar said: ‘I’m pleased that we doubled the actual number of votes that we got and we increased the share of our vote by 9 per cent.
‘I think you can see the immense progress we have made in the past ten weeks.’
Despite the significant losses, Scottish Labour did experience some good fortune, as Jackie Baillie held Dumbarton, the most marginal seat in Scotland.
Her wafer-thin majority over the SNP in 2016 sparked major fears the Nationalists would manage to poach the seat this year.
But Ms Baillie, who has held the seat since the creation of Holyrood, significantly boosted her majority over the SNP’s Tony Giugliano from 103 to 1,483.
Meanwhile, Daniel Johnson kept a grip on Edinburgh Southern for the second term in a row, increasing his share of the vote by 10 per cent.
The party did particularly well in Glasgow, where it had four of its regional candidates elected.
In addition to Mr Sarwar, former MP Paul Sweeney, Pam DuncanGlancy – Holyrood’s first wheelchair user – and Pauline McNeill were elected.
In the North East, Michael Marra and Mercedes Villalba were elected. The West of Scotland also came out to vote for Scottish Labour on their peach regional lists, resulting in the election of Neil Bibby, Katy Clark and Paul O’Kane.
Many hailed Mr Sarwar for his focus on the Covid recovery. He said he had five recovery plans on jobs, the NHS, education, climate change and communities, as part of his vision to rebuild.
But despite his efforts, this historic defeat will raise fresh questions about the relevance of the Labour movement in Scotland.
‘Immense progress in the past ten weeks’