Their message was simple: ‘Vote Labour to stop the Conservatives.’ Since 2015, it was the last card they had to play, a desperate plea that kept them clinging to relevance even as their influence faded. And after over a decade on the sidelines, it finally paid off.
Scottish Labour is once again the dominant party in Scotland at Westminster, and recent polls suggest they could begin to mend their fractured standing at Holyrood next year. However, in typical Scottish political fashion, it can never be that straightforward. Just as they were revived, something started killing them off, but it wasn’t the SNP, Reform UK, or even the Lib Dems – it was themselves.
After 14 years of Tory rule, Labour finally managed to convince the public they were better than the party that crashed the economy, inflicted austerity, and caused the deaths of over 200 000 Brits – only to somehow cause even more upset. Within months of being in power, Labour decided to betray WASPI women, take away heating from pensioners and refuse to take a moral stance on the genocide in Gaza. Labour hasn’t just failed to deliver change – they’ve doubled down on the very cruelty they once campaigned against.
Not only has this caused uproar and devastated Britain’s most vulnerable, but it has forced Scottish Labour into a dilemma. How do you ask voters to trust you when your own party down south is too busy betraying them? Labour’s own Wes Streeting now infamously said: “All roads lead Westminster,” a line that once kept Scottish Labour’s heart beating, offering the illusion that power in London could deliver for Scotland. But now the swingometer has swung, and Labour now sit comfortably in Westminster, the claim is now self-inflicting. And, after all, ‘vote Labour to stop Labour’ doesn’t have a particular ring to it.
Every week, a new contradiction between Scottish Labour promises and actual Labour emerges, leaving Anas Sarwar, former dentist, now Scottish branch office manager, looking like an undermined figurehead. Sarwar urged voters to read his lips when he said: “No austerity under Labour.” Starmer delivered it in abundance. Sarwar claimed voting Labour would save Grangemouth; Starmer’s government funnelled more money into an oil refinery in Belgium while redundancy notices crept in at home. Sarwar promised thousands of jobs in Aberdeen through GB Energy, yet Starmer has refused to confirm any to date.
The most recent Scottish Labour Leaders
In the last 15 years, Scottish Labour has had five leaders, and in total, zero of them have been respected by their unequal counterparts in London. The position is a poisoned chalice; whoever takes it is forced into submission by London, draining them of both power and the positive sentiments of Scottish voters. Every new leader enters with promises of change, only to be reminded of their place in the food chain. They don’t lead; they kneel. They talk of autonomy, but when London calls, they drop everything and run. They water down policies, toe the party line, and nod along to decisions that hurt Scotland, making it almost impossible to put your faith in them. How can you stand up for your country when you can’t criticise your co-worker down south?
The answer is you can’t, and this spineless work ethic only harms the party in Scotland. Since Labour walked into Number 10 and has failed to live up to expectations, Anas Sarwar’s approval rating has fallen from -8 to -17 per cent. Would Sarwar still be unpopular if he wasn’t weighed down? Yes, but the damage would be nowhere near as bad.
Scottish Labour is a branch shackled to a dying tree – unable to grow independently. If the party has any hope of survival in 2026 – let alone relevance – it must confront the one path it has long refused to consider: independence. Not an independent Scotland but an independent Labour Party in Scotland.
Scottish Labour isn’t just held back by UK Labour; it’s being actively sabotaged by it. Every time Starmer U-turns, every time Westminster ignores Scotland, every time Labour betrays the very people who put their faith in them, it is Scottish Labour that takes the hit. It is forced to defend decisions it never made, excuse policies it never wrote, and campaign for cabinet members it had no hand in choosing. Instead of tanking alongside UK Labour every time Starmer alienates another group of voters, it could rise (or fall) on its own merits solely based on what it does for Scotland.
Breaking away would allow a newly independent Scottish Labour Party to distance itself from the failures of Labour in England and devolved Wales. Time and time again, when Scottish Labour (sometimes rightfully) criticises the SNP’s record on devolved issues, their arguments collapse under the sheer hypocrisy of their own party’s disastrous governance elsewhere. Their attacks aren’t dismissed because they’re wrong – but because they reek of double standards.
How can they attack NHS failures when Labour-run Wales has the worst waiting times in Great Britiain? How can they call out economic mismanagement when Starmer’s government is already abandoning its pledges and backtracking on promises? Every failing of Labour elsewhere becomes an albatross around Scottish Labour’s neck, making their criticisms hollow and stripping them of credibility in any debate. Worse still, they spend more time trying to defend Labour’s broader record than making the case for themselves, diluting any impact their arguments might have. It only takes John Swinney to point out that the Labour government Sarwar insists is “delivering for Scotland” is making things worse, and suddenly, their entire case crumbles.
This isn’t to say Scottish Labour’s concerns about the SNP aren’t legitimate, far from it. But as long as they remain shackled to a party whose failures are even easier to expose, their attacks will be seen – unfairly or not – as cheap political point-scoring rather than serious opposition. This isn’t just bad for Scottish Labour – it’s bad for Scotland. Weak opposition doesn’t just fail to hold power to account; it actively lowers the standard of governance. If Scottish Labour’s attacks can be so easily dismissed, the SNP faces less pressure to improve. Instead of being challenged by a serious, issue-driven opposition that forces them to raise their game, they get to coast by, pointing south and saying ‘At least we’re not as bad as them.’
However, if Scottish Labour officially became their own party, who would hold together a party fraying at every seam? The party is void of integrity and talent in its current state.
Anas Sarwar embodies everything wrong with the party; He first entered politics in 2010, not through merit, but by inheriting Glasgow Central candidacy from his father. His convictions shift with the political winds, his stance on key issues dictated not by principle, but by whatever serves his personal ambition. He initially backed Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill, only to abandon it when the political climate changed after the NHS Fife case broke out. And now, in a desperate bid for relevance, he refuses to rule out working with Reform UK – a party steeped in British nationalism. Sarwar doesn’t stand for anything. He stands for himself.
For deputy leader Jackie Baillie, misrepresentation has become her calling card. She’s been caught misleading Holyrood so frequently it’s almost procedural, but her latest fabrication was particularly brazen: citing NHS failures from south-east England and presenting them as Scotland’s own. Whether it was incompetence or deliberate deception is almost irrelevant – either way, it’s a damning indictment of a politician who relies on falsehoods to score political points.
Jackie Baillie
Even the most progressive MSPs, including Paul Sweeny, Mercedes Villalba, and Monica Lennon (who once advocated for an independent Scottish Labour before quietly abandoning the idea) have surrendered to party lines voting against the principles that distinguished them from the rest of the party. They once looked like butterflies in a party of moths, but now they are indistinguishable from the rest of them, drawn to the same dim light.
Holyrood has debated the Scottish Budget the last two months, passing it on 25 February. It wasn’t perfect, but it was backed by those who understand poverty, housing, and economic hardship better than any politician ever could. Shelter Scotland, Save the Children, the Poverty Alliance, and major trade unions all called it essential. They didn’t just support it – they warned that without it, Scotland’s most vulnerable would suffer. It was predicted to lift thousands of children out of poverty by scrapping the cruel two-child benefit cap. It would tackle the worsening housing crisis, It would have pumped millions into crisis support and thrown a desperately needed £15 million to Scottish Universities, which are struggling to keep doors open. This wasn’t a radical budget – it was survival.
And when Scotland’s leading charities, anti-poverty groups, and trade unions – the very people Labour was founded to listen to – said this budget was essential, what did Scottish Labour do?
If they can’t even back a plan endorsed by those on the front lines of poverty, if they refuse to support funding that could keep families housed and a universities afloat, then what exactly are they for? Because at this point, they’re not opposition, they’re an obstacle.
And then, after refusing to take a stand, after turning their backs on a budget that charities, unions, and campaigners deemed essential, Scottish Labour had the audacity to say Holyrood should be grateful that Westminster gave them the money in the first place. Grateful? For being handed back a fraction of what Scotland contributes? Rather than ensuring that money was used to support those who need it most, Labour treated it as a gift, as if Holyrood were a dependent administration, fortunate to receive Westminster’s leftovers.
This isn’t opposition. It’s submission. And it’s why, unless Scottish Labour finds the courage to break free, it will never be anything more than Westminster’s mouthpiece in Scotland.
While Scottish Labour is yonks away from where it should be, we should all want it to get back there. The SNP need substantial opposition from the left, not pseudo-socialists who find themselves foaming at the mouth at the mention of self-determination. We need opposition that holds the SNP to account on policy, not just out of political bitterness, one that doesn’t manufacture outrage for a cheap ‘gotcha’ moment.
Yet, instead of carving out a bold, progressive identity, Scottish Labour remains stuck in a lifeless orbit around a Westminster leadership that neither understands nor prioritises Scotland – content to follow rather than lead. If the party keep refusing to break free, it will never be anything more than a shadow of itself, forever waiting for permission to matter.
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