Quite right! | Anas Sarwar: why I said Starmer should go
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The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
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Summary
One month on from calling for Keir Starmer's resignation, Anas Sarwar – the leader of Scottish Labour – joins Michael Gove to reflect on British politics ahead of the May elections. Does he stand by his call for the Prime Minister to go? And, having spoken to Wes Streeting the weekend before, what advice did his close ally give?
The May local and regional elections promise to be the 'fiercest battle' for Scotland's future. Yet after over two decades in power, what does he make of polling that suggests the SNP will win – again? Is Reform posing a threat to Labour? And how can Scottish Labour offer a realistic alternative?
Plus: which Westminster cabinet minister would he like to see campaign in Scotland – and who are his political heroes?
Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The British right is up for grabs. As May's local elections approach, the Conservatives face strong competition from Reform UK. |
| 0:07.9 | Join the Spectator's assistant editor, Isabel Hardman, for the spectator debate, the fight for the right, on Wednesday, the 29th of April in London. |
| 0:15.5 | We will pit the Conservatives represented by Matthew Saeed and Dominic Johnson against Reform UK, represented by |
| 0:21.5 | Matt Goodwin and Danny Kruger. To see which party truly represents the future of the right, |
| 0:27.2 | book your tickets at spectator.com forward slash fight. |
| 0:45.2 | Hello and welcome to Quite Right, The Spectator's Weekly podcast, with me Michael Go, editor of The Spectator. |
| 0:50.6 | May the 7th could be the most pivotal day in the lifetime of this Parliament. |
| 0:56.3 | Voters go to the polls not just for local elections in England, but crucially in Scotland for elections to the Scottish Parliament and indeed in Wales. And the biggest, the fiercest battleground |
| 1:02.5 | will be in Scotland. We've had the SNP in power now for almost two decades. Their principal |
| 1:09.5 | challenger, the man who is bidding to be First Minister of |
| 1:12.9 | Scotland, is Labour's leader in Scotland, Anas Sawa. And he's been in the news big time already this |
| 1:20.6 | year, because he's the most prominent Labour politician to call for Kirstama to go. Well, I've been talking to Anas Sawa about why it was he felt he needed to intervene in that way |
| 1:33.8 | and what Scotland would look like, indeed what the United Kingdom could learn from |
| 1:39.6 | Anna Sawa as the Labour First Minister of Scotland. |
| 1:45.6 | Anas, it's obviously nearly two decades now that the SNP have been in power. |
| 1:51.8 | What's going to be the principal argument that you will be making that it's time for a change and time for labour? |
| 1:57.0 | Look, absolutely. You've kind of hit the nail on the head. I mean, I was still university when, |
| 2:04.4 | or at least just out of university, sorry, as a dentist when the SMP came to power. My kids, |
| 2:10.9 | who eldest now 17, going to be 18 in August. He and a whole generation have only ever lived |
| 2:17.0 | with the SMP in power. |
| 2:19.2 | And basically, core to our argument is going to be after 20 years of the SMP in government, |
| 2:24.2 | they've lost their way. |
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