Holyrood election will be ‘ugly’, warns Anas Sarwar

Anas Sarwar has warned the Scottish Parliament election next year is “going to be ugly” due to the presence of Reform UK.

The Scottish Labour leader accused Nigel Farage’s party of dragging a byelection campaign earlier this year “into the gutter”.

He also said the SNP had “talked up Reform” in order to “drive people to them out of fear”.

The Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse byelection took place in June, following the death of SNP MSP Christina McKelvie.

Labour defied the odds to win the seat, but during the campaign an advert by Reform by was described as “racist” by both Labour and the SNP and reported to social media firm Meta.

The Reform advert claimed Sarwar would “prioritise the Pakistani community”, featuring clips of the leader at an event marking 75 years of Pakistani independence.

In the video, he said Pakistanis were “represented in every mainstream political party” and he welcomed the fact South Asian people like him “get to lead political parties and get to lead countries”. At no point did Sarwar claim that the Pakistani community should be prioritised.

Speaking in Glasgow on Monday ahead of MSPs returning to Holyrood, Sarwar pledged that a Scottish Labour government would “deliver a new direction by unlocking the talent and meeting the ambition of the people of Scotland”.

But he warned about the tenor of the debate likely to take place over the next eight months as parties begin to campaign.

He said: “The run-up to the election next May is going to be ugly. We have already had a preview of the sort of tactics used by other parties in the Hamilton byelection. And as the SNP get more and more desperate and Reform get more and more brazen, it’s only going to get worse.

“But let’s be clear about what happened in the byelection. Reform UK dragged the campaign into the gutter; they played on people’s fears and they did everything they could to poison the debate; they challenged my Scottish identity and they played to the lowest common denominator at every chance. That’s what we expect from that bunch of chancers. All they are is noise and all they do is distract from the SNP’s failures.

“But what John Swinney and the SNP did was totally cynical. Instead of a positive campaign, they tried to make the campaign all about Reform. They knew it was a fight between the SNP and Scottish Labour, but to try to hide from scrutiny and to drive people to them out of fear, they talked up Reform at every chance.”

The speech was briefly interrupted by a pro-Palestine protestor, who was escorted out of the event. Other protestors also gathered at the venue.

The UK Government intends to formally recognise Palestine as a state this month, after officials carry out an assessment of whether Israel has complied with the tests set out by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in August.

But many have been highly critical of the UK’s stance on Palestine, arguing it has not gone far enough to protect the people of Gaza in the face of Israeli aggression and its blocking of aid.

In response to the protestor, Sarwar said: “I believe there is a genocide happening in Gaza. I believe Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and he will have to face further sanctions.”