Sarwar has shown his ruthless streak. But will his swipe at Starmer mean anything to voters?
Anas Sarwar has shown he has a ruthless streak.Once one of Keir Starmer’s staunchest cheerleaders and allies, the Scottish Labour leader is now the most senior party figure to call for him to quit.Despite anger among his colleagues and criticism that his decision to demand Starmer stands down was “idiotic, immature and self-defeating”, Sarwar’s political calculation is blunt and uncompromising.Sarwar and his advisers, having watched Scottish Labour’s 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.Sarwar, by delivering a better result in Scotland at the 2024 general election – winning 35.
3% of the vote compared with Labour’s 33.7% at UK level – managed to double his party’s support levels in a matter of months.That has now evaporated.Scottish Labour sits at 18% in the polls.Scottish Labour’s leadership have been in crisis talks since the issue of Peter Mandelson’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein grew into a fully fledged scandal last week.
But Sarwar’s call for Starmer to quit is freighted with risks.If Starmer limps on in the lead-up to Scottish elections in May or Labour descends into civil war, Sarwar’s failure to deliver the coup de grace will be used by his opponents in a campaign to claim he is weak or, worse, ignored.A successful outcome for Sarwar, such as it is, relies on Starmer quitting now.He needs Starmer to resign gracefully and with humility.And it would matter too who stands to replace him.
Sarwar’s allies may be gambling that a leadership contest will produce candidates that can rouse voters who have fled to Reform or the Greens to reconsider Labour, or at the very least, lance the boil they feel Starmer’s premiership has become.However, that strategy is full of what-ifs.As Sarwar made clear, any decision about the future of the UK party leadership rests with the cabinet and the party in London.It is also a huge risk because it offers all his opponents the chance, yet again, to portray Labour as a party in turmoil; they will paint Starmer as a lame duck prime minister; they will amplify every personal attack on Sarwar.Sarwar’s primary calculation is that Scotland’s electorate will hear and enjoy his comments about his loyalty being to Scotland.
Insisting his “first priority and first loyalty” was to Scotland, he sought to justify his decision to call for Starmer to go as being one of service in the national interest.“We cannot allow the failures at the heart of Downing Street to mean the failures continue here in Scotland, because the election in May is not without consequence for the lives of Scots.” Voters, he said “want to see politics that is open and accountable.They want to see leaders who put the national interest before themselves.“That is the standard I will always apply.
In three months we have an election that must be about one thing and one thing only: Scotland,That is my duty,That is my priority,That is my loyalty and that is Scotland’s choice,”And yet it is another huge risk.
Sarwar will have numerous opportunities to repeat this line in interviews, on leaflets and in televised election debates.However, voters may see this ruthlessness as the kind of betrayal they dislike in politicians; if they already felt let down by Labour, they may be utterly indifferent.It may simply be too late and too self-destructive.
UK borrowing costs rise, then dip, as pressure grows on Starmer; Japan’s Nikkei hits record high after Takaichi’s election win – as it happened
UK borrowing costs are pushing higher, as pressure continues to mount on Keir Starmer.The yield, or interest rate, on 10-year government bonds is now up 7 basis points (0.07 percentage points) to 4.59%, as gilt prices continue to drop.That’s close to the two and a half-month high touched last week
NatWest to buy wealth manager Evelyn Partners for £2.7bn
NatWest has agreed a £2.7bn deal to buy Evelyn Partners, one of the UK’s biggest wealth managers, in the bank’s largest acquisition since it was bailed out by taxpayers in 2008.The move signals an attempt to bolster the wealth management business for the banking group, which returned to full private ownership last year, and already owns the private bank Coutts.It makes NatWest the latest among the big four banks to push more forcefully into wealth management. Rivals including HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays have been working to lure more fee-paying affluent customers, ensuring lenders are less reliant on income from everyday loans that are linked to the rise and fall of interest rates
‘It felt hypocritical’: child internet safety campaign accused of censoring teenagers’ speeches
An internet safety campaign backed by US tech companies has been accused of censoring two teenagers they invited to speak out about the biggest issues facing children online.Childnet, a UK charity part-funded by companies including Snap, Roblox and Meta, edited out warnings from Lewis Swire and Saamya Ghai that social media addiction was an “imminent threat to our future” and obsessive scrolling was making people “sick”, according to a record of edits seen by the Guardian.Swire, then 17, from Edinburgh, and Ghai, then 14, from Buckinghamshire, had been asked to speak at an event to mark Safer Internet Day in 2024 in London in front of representatives from government, charities and tech companies.The tech-backed charity also edited out references to children feeling unable to stop using TikTok and Snap, social media exacerbating a “devastating epidemic” of isolation, and a passage questioning why people would want to spend years of their lives “scrolling TikTok and binge-watching Netflix”, the edits show.The 2026 iteration of the Childnet-run event takes place on Tuesday with more than 2,800 schools and colleges listed as supporters
‘I fell into it’: ex-criminal hackers urge Manchester pupils to use web skills for good
Cybercriminals, the shadowy online figures often depicted in Hollywood movies as hooded villains capable of wiping millions of pounds off the value of businesses at a keystroke, are not usually known for their candour.But in a sixth-form college in Manchester this week, two former hackers gave the young people gathered an honest appraisal of what living a life of internet crime really looks like.The teenagers in the room are listening intently, but the day-to-day internecine disputes they hear about is not the stuff of screenplays.“It’s just people getting into these online dramas and they’re swatting and doxing each other and getting people to throw bricks through their windows,” one of the hackers says.If the language sounds unfamiliar, it should – “swatting” and “doxing” involve people outing each other online by posting their genuine identities – but their message is clear: though cybercrime may seem alluring, the reality is anything but
Trying times for Welsh rugby | Letters
Re your editorial (The Guardian view on Welsh rugby: enduring an existential crisis with cultural roots, 4 February), what’s surprising is that it’s taken this long. In the amateur era, Wales, with a much smaller population than that of England, had more wins than losses against most of the home nations. Welsh clubs were among the very best in the world and Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and Llanelli all beat the All Blacks.The game and its culture had great resonance in southern Wales, where relatively slightly built men, fleet of foot and with flair (many from south-west Wales and Welsh speakers) ran with the ball won by forwards often hardened by work in heavy industry. Schoolmasters were dedicated to encouraging talent and participation in team games
Winter Olympic officials to investigate why medals keep breaking
They are among the most prized possessions in sport, yet embarrassingly for Olympic officials the medals in Milano Cortina keep breaking.On Monday organisers promised to launch an investigation into why it was happening after Winter Olympic medallists, including the American downhill skiing champion Breezy Johnson, reported chipped, cracked and damaged medals.Johnson’s medal broke shortly after the podium ceremony on Saturday when she was celebrating. “I was jumping up and down in excitement, then it just fell off,” she told reporters, before showing her cracked and chipped medal in one hand as the separated ribbon hung around her neck.The Sweden cross‑country skier Ebba Andersson reported that her medal “fell in the snow and broke in two”, before adding: “Now I hope the organisers have a ‘plan B’ for broken medals
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