Former Paisley dentist cleans up in Labour leader contest
MSP Anas Sarwar is new party boss
Paisley can lay claim to links with the past two leaders of Scottish Labour.
New man Anas Sarwar spent five years at the drill head of a Paisley dental practice.
And his predecessor Richard Leonard lives in Ralston.
Sarwar was a dentist at the Rodney Bidwell surgery on the first floor of a tenement in Causeyside Street.
The surgery is now run by Abbey Dental Care.
Sarwar joined the surgery in his first and only dental job in 2005, spending nearly five years drilling and filling the teeth of Buddies.
He quit in 2010 after winning his dad Mohammad’s Glasgow Central Westminster seat.
He switched to Holyrood in 2016 as a Glasgow list member after losing his Westminster seat to the SNP.
Anas, who turns 38 later this month, was just 25 when he told his boss at Rodney Bidwell he was standing for parliament.
Ailyan
In an interview with the Express back then, he said: “It’s been fantastic working in the town, the people are great and so friendly.
“There’s a good mix of people and they’ve been very kind to me since I started working here.
“I rarely talk about politics with my patients, I’m too busy concentrating on giving them the best care possible.
“But if I’m ever in the paper or on TV then I do get a few comments from them.”
He quit when he won the seat, but maintained his political interest in dentistry.
His wife Furheen is a practising NHS dentist.
Richard Leonard, 59, quit on January 14 after being seen as failing to make an impact against SNP dominance.
West Scotland Labour MSP Neil Bibby backed Sarwar for the party’s top job.
He told us: “Anas is one of the Scottish Parliament’s best communicators and he will spread Labour’s positive vision for future effectively. He will also be fearless in holding Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP to account.”
Inside dentistry, many of the things that I am passionate about are evident