The Politics of Fantasy and Cynicism

In the aftermath of yesterday’s high drama with Anas Sarwar’s thwarted attempt to dethrone the Prime Minister, it’s worth looking at where we are and what it means for Scottish politics in the run-up to the Holyrood election in May.

More Pootch than Putsch

Like the Bonnie Prince arriving at Derby, the Labour leader was captivated either by his own self-reflection or by bad intel, but for whatever reason made a spectacularly bad decision yesterday to go live on television and call for Keir Starmer’s resignation. For someone calling out the (undoubtedly) poor political judgment of his leader, it was a case of … spectacularly poor political judgment.

Within hours, the entire UK Cabinet had swung behind the Prime Minister and within 24 hours Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, issued a statement saying she backed Sir Keir Starmer.

Whether Sarwar had been promised support from his Welsh counterpart, or had been expecting manoeuvres from Wes Streeting, is beside the point. The Labour leader’s actions today look more stupid than brave, more reckless than ruthless, as colleague after colleague lined up to throw him under the bus.

Whether this bus was owned by the Easdale Brothers remains to be seen.

Sarwar now appears to be attempting to float free from the very party he (nominally) leads, very much in the way that Colonel Lady Ruth Davidson attempted to do with the Conservatives: “Vote for me and I’ll stand up to those bastards in Downing Street” was the confusing campaign message then and now.

Emerging from the debris of Labour’s election campaign, the redoubtable Douglas Alexander emerged like a Panglossian stage-hypnotist, telling BBC Radio Scotland:

“There was a sincere and genuine disagreement between the Scottish Labour leader and the UK prime minister yesterday, but the task at hand remains the same, which is that there’s a judgment to be made in just over three months’ time as to who we want to be the government of Scotland.”

He went on to say: “I’ve spoken to the prime minister in the last few hours. I’ve spoken to Anas, and I can tell you sincerely and authentically that there is a willingness to work together.”

“I know both of these men, I talked to them both last night. Kier Starmer was on the phone to me yesterday evening making very clear he remains determined that Anas Sarwar is the first minister of Scotland after May. Equally, Anas is clear that he has set out his position, he will work hard to take the fight to the SNP in the coming months.”

Fantasy and Cynicism

It’s insulting the intelligence of the electorate to make such statements, but the alternative was to axe the Scottish leader mid-campaign, and so the Secretary of State was left with no option but to come out with this nonsense.

But the fiasco leaves the party bitterly divided with multiple factions. The Daily Record tweeted hopefully: “A second Scottish Labour MP backs Anas Sawar in calling for Keir Starmer to quit.” For context, that’s two out of 37 MPs.

If Alexander seemed elated, so too did stalwarts who had been put in the frame to replace Keir Starmer. Ed Miliband described Starmer as “liberated”, 24 hours after the departure of the PM’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. Miliband told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he hoped that the truest version of Starmer would now show itself to the country.

But perhaps more insightful was Diane Abbott, who believed that the PM was only being kept on life-support until after the coming elections, in which disaster was now baked in. Labour had left it too late, hesitated too long, for a change of leader to be effective, she argued. It may be that this assessment is right, with the operators within the party opting to pin electoral disaster on their own leader in order to strengthen the case for ousting him. This speaks to a hopelessly cynical politics. Why should anyone believe in this?

The writer and podcaster Coll McCail cited Stuart Hall, saying ‘Stuart Hall was right in the 1980s. He’s right now’:

“The right of the Labour movement, to be honest, has no ideas of any compelling quality, except the instinct for short-term political survival.  It would not know an ideological struggle if it stumbled across it in the dark. The only ‘struggle’ it engages in with any trace of conviction is the one against the Left.”

Depressing, but undeniably true.

Meanwhile, back on Fantasy Island, a readout from the Cabinet this morning stated:

“The Prime Minister said that the whole of the Labour Party wants Anas Sarwar to become First Minister and will fight for a Labour government in Scotland.”

This is as unbelievable as Douglas Alexander’s fantastical comments about harmony and common purpose earlier.

A more real-world analysis was offered by Neil Findlay on Radio Wales this morning:

I spoke to Radio Wales about events of yesterday and Anas Sarwar’s botched coup pic.twitter.com/V7MFeU7gwF

— Neil Findlay (@Neilsocialist) February 10, 2026

Independence for Scottish Labour

But if Findlay’s interpretation bears a closer resemblance to reality than anything from the Prime Minister’s office or the Secretary of State, there are also bigger questions at play about what the whole debacle tells us about British and Scottish politics.

It’s a very slow learning curve for many within Scottish Labour, now facing a further reduction in their already reduced numbers at Holyrood. At what point, you wonder, does the logic of: back the Union; back the right-wing of the party; suppress democracy at all costs; and resist any form of independence from London, look like a losing plan?

Kezia Dugdale is pretty forthright speaking to Times Radio: “A decision has been taken that the Gordon byelection isn’t important enough, the Scottish parliament elections aren’t important enough, to force these alternative leadership campaigns to get their acts together …”

“He’s done. It’s just a question of when he goes.”

Former leader of Scottish Labour Kezia Dugdale says everybody knows “Keir Starmer is baked.”@AlexChalkChelt | @KateEMcCann | @StigAbell pic.twitter.com/rB3Ry2KqvM

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) February 10, 2026

Of course, Scottish Labour are locked-in to a political narrative which will see its own demise. Having swallowed wholesale the arguments for Union, they are in a political straightjacket that prevents them from seeing the opportunity of acting independently from UK Labour. Such an act, which is politically glaringly obvious and being articulated in real time by Anas Sarwar is taboo for the party. Even when they are treated with the contempt that Dugdale describes, and even when they are bowed down by their own party’s activities, as laid out week after week by the pollsters, they won’t change anything.

In the end, Labour are left with two hopelessly compromised leaders. In the coming elections, they will be Dead Ducks to their opponents in Manchester, Wales and Scotland. The weightier question that hangs over this whole fiasco is whether such cynical and shallow politics just offers an opportunity for the far-right to further their own political agenda?