Anas Sarwar: Time is up for the SNP

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said his party must “finish the job” it started at the recent general election by removing the SNP from power in 2026.

Pointing to NHS waiting lists, high levels of rough sleeping and the persisting attainment gap, Sarwar said the “time is up for the SNP” while addressing Labour’s conference in Liverpool.

This is the party’s first conference since winning the election in July, where Scottish Labour won 37 seats and ended a decade of SNP dominance.

Looking ahead to the next Scottish Parliament election in May 2026, Sarwar said his opponents offered “nothing but decline and division”.

“They are a party that has lost their vision and lost their way, and above all, they have lost their ambition for Scotland,” he added.

He said the “next stage of change” was to re-enter government in Edinburgh. He said: “We have the expertise, we have the skills, we have the natural resources, we have the workers, and we have the entrepreneurs that we need to deliver a decade of national renewal. But this requires a government at Holyrood that is ready and willing to work with others to make this happen.”

Ahead of his speech, the SNP accused Sarwar of having failed to stand up for Scotland since Labour came into power.

Depute leader Keith Brown said: “The pledges Labour made during the general election have been proven to be nothing more than empty electioneering and people in Scotland now know they cannot trust a word Anas Sarwar says.

“Anas Sarwar should be apologising for failing to do right by Scotland and for failing every voter who put their trust in Labour a few months ago. Whether it’s Liverpool or London, it’s clear Mr Sarwar’s loyalties will always lie with his Westminster bosses, and it is the people of Scotland who suffer as a result.”

The Conservatives have said that the idea Scottish Labour represents change is “for the birds”, with chairman Craig Hoy saying “you can barely stick a cigarette paper between the two parties”.

He added: “Anas Sarwar’s crowing about the election result is unlikely to impress Scottish voters who are already disillusioned with a grasping Labour cabinet, which has gladly hoovered up thousands of pounds in freebies while betraying almost one million Scottish pensioners ahead of a difficult winter.”

Scottish secretary Ian Murray addressed delegates at the conference ahead of Sarwar.

He said Scots voted for his party this year because they had been “let down badly by their two governments”, not because they had “come home to Labour”. 

“They chose us in the hope and expectation that we will deliver for them. And that is what we must, and are determined, to do,” he said.

Murray also pledged to work with the Scottish Government and local governments going forward to help deliver on the Scotland Office’s priority areas of economic growth, green energy, Brand Scotland, and tackling poverty.