Overview
- Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar condemned colleagues who briefed that Keir Starmer should quit before May, calling such behaviour idiotic.
- Sarwar said the Holyrood race will be run on a Scotland‑focused message and urged the Prime Minister and UK ministers to remain at their desks rather than campaign north of the border.
- Some Scottish Labour MPs told national newspapers that replacing Starmer could boost the party, while sources close to the Prime Minister branded the rebels idiots and hypocrites.
- Polling analysis from Professor Sir John Curtice puts Labour around 18% nationally and apparently in third place, a slide that party figures acknowledge is complicating Scottish prospects.
- Health Secretary Wes Streeting, floated by some as a possible successor, publicly denied leadership ambitions as Sarwar insisted he can defeat the SNP and warned internal rows help his opponents.