Category Archives: Anas Sarwar

Keir Starmer Lives To Fight Another Day After Anas Sarwar Ambush Backfires

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Anas Sarwar has managed to achieve the seemingly impossible and united Keir Starmer’s cabinet behind him – at least for now.

The Scottish Labour leader decided to push the nuclear button by calling an emergency press conference and demanding the prime minister quit.

It led to feverish speculation that it would be the first salvo in a concerted attempt by senior Labour figures to unseat Starmer ahead of May’s elections in Scotland, Wales and across England.

Indeed, Sarwar himself made it clear that he wanted to see the PM replaced by someone more popular to at least give Scottish Labour half a chance as they try to defeat the SNP.

Specifically, he said Downing Street’s disastrous handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal meant Starmer had to go.

“The distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change,” the Scottish Labour leader said.

“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,” he declared.

But Sarwar’s battle cry went unheeded, with sources close to Welsh first minister Eluned Morgan denying suggestions that she would also be calling for Starmer to quit.

Significantly, it appeared that the Scottish Labour leader had little support from even his own countrymen and women.

One Scottish MP told HuffPost UK: “Who does Anas want to be prime minister? Does he even know? If he’s doing this with no idea of the end game, then frankly what’s the fucking point?

“The first rule of politics is never demand someone’s resignation unless you know you’re going to get it.”

Sarwar’s assault also had the unintended consequence of reigniting a seemingly extinct fighting spirit within Starmer’s Downing Street operation.

Cabinet ministers, previously reluctant to make clear their support for the PM, were strong-armed into going on social media and doing just that.

In what was clearly a co-ordinated operation, every member of the cabinet, as well as junior ministers, Labour mayors and potential leadership contenders, took to X to say now was not the time for the PM to go.

Whether their sentiments were sincere or not, it was an impressive display of raw political power, marginalising Sarwar while gaining buy-in from ministers whose backing for Starmer’s leadership has rarely been full-throated.

The PM was then greeted with loud roars of approval and enthusiastic applause when he attended a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday evening.

Starmer told the MPs and peers present: “I have had my detractors every step along the way, and I’ve got them now. Detractors that don’t want a Labour government at all, and certainly not one to succeed.

“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.”

Far from fatally undermining Starmer, Sarwar’s act of sedition seems to have, remarkably, bolstered the prime minister at a time when he appeared to be at his lowest ebb.

He is far from out of the woods, of course, and it is still more likely than not that he will be forced out of No.10 by the summer.

But after days of unremittingly awful headlines, and against all the odds, Sarwar’s cack-handed attempts to unseat him have left Starmer stronger than he has been in months.

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Cabinet Ministers Declare Support For Starmer As PM Fights For Survival

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Cabinet ministers have pledged their support for Keir Starmer as the prime minister fights for his political survival.

In a clearly co-cordinated operation, a succession of senior government ministers took to social media to make clear they do not want the PM to resign.

It came as Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was calling on Starmer to quit over the Peter Mandelson scandal engulfing No.10.

The UK’s former ambassador to Washington is facing a police investigation over allegations he passed market sensitive information to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he was business secretary between 2008 and 2010.

Sarwar said: “The distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.”

The incendiary move led to speculation that cabinet ministers could resign in order to force the PM out.

But one after another, they posted messages on X making clear they believe he should stay in his post.

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Rebuilding Britain takes time. But thanks to the decisions we’ve made NHS waiting lists are falling. Inflation is falling. Interest rates are falling. The conditions for the economy to grow are there.

With Keir as our Prime Minister we are turning the country around.

— Rachel Reeves (@RachelReevesMP) February 9, 2026

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Rebuilding Britain takes time. But thanks to the decisions we’ve made NHS waiting lists are falling. Inflation is falling. Interest rates are falling. The conditions for the economy to grow are there.

With Keir as our Prime Minister we are turning the country around.

— Rachel Reeves (@RachelReevesMP) February 9, 2026

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We should let nothing distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the Prime Minister in doing that.

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) February 9, 2026

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Keir Starmer won a massive mandate 18 months ago, for five years to deliver on Labour’s manifesto that we all stood on.

We should let nothing distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the Prime Minister in doing that.

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) February 9, 2026