Starmer returns to Scotland after Sarwar resignation call over Westminster turmoil

Keir Starmer’s return to Scotland lands at a sensitive moment for Labour, after Anas Sarwar publicly urged him to step down in the middle of the Peter Mandelson fallout and a fresh burst of Downing Street resignations. The trip is the prime minister’s first north of the border since Sarwar made clear, in Glasgow on February 9, that he no longer wanted Starmer leading the UK government.

Sarwar’s intervention was striking not just for its timing, but for its tone. Standing in Glasgow, the Scottish Labour leader said the “distraction needs to end” and argued that the leadership in Downing Street had to change. He linked that demand to the Mandelson row, described the situation at the top of government as “not good enough”, and said his first priority was Scotland, insisting that the May 2026 election had to be about Scotland, not Westminster chaos.

The pressure on Starmer was compounded by the departure of two of his closest aides, Morgan McSweeney, his chief of staff, and Tim Allan, his communications director. That double resignation sharpened the impression of instability in London just as Sarwar was trying to protect Labour’s Scottish campaign from the fallout. Sarwar later said he had made Starmer aware of his position before going public, underlining how carefully he was drawing a line between the UK leadership and the Scottish contest.

The political stakes are high. Labour won a landslide in the 2024 general election and became the largest party in Scotland at Westminster, giving Starmer a level of authority there that no Labour prime minister had enjoyed for 14 years. His first official Scotland visit as prime minister, in July 2024, took him to Edinburgh to meet First Minister John Swinney and talk about a reset in relations between Westminster and Holyrood. That trip was meant to signal a different way of working across the UK; this one shows how quickly that project can be strained.

For Labour, the problem is not only personal. The party is trying to turn UK office into a platform for stronger support in Scotland ahead of the Holyrood election in May 2026, while the SNP will aim to argue that Westminster governments fail Scots and that only Holyrood can provide stability. Sarwar’s break with Starmer suggests both containment and rupture: a tactical effort to shield Scottish Labour from London’s turmoil, but also a public reminder that the party’s UK and Scottish wings are no longer moving in lockstep.