Sarwar says the SNP government in Scotland is failing.
We have an NHS crisis where too many Scots cannot access the treatment they need and when they need it.
We have a housing emergency with more than 10,000 Scottish children homeless right now, and we have too many young people not feeling safe at school or on our streets, or missing out on the opportunities they deserve.
And we have an SNP government that is addicted to secrecy and cover ups with devastating consequences.
That is why I have to be honest about failure wherever I see it.
The situation in Downing Street is not good enough. There have been too many mistakes.
Sarwar says of course good things have been achieved.
But no one knows them and no one can hear them because they’re being drowned out.
That’s why it cannot continue.
Asked to clarify his relationship with Mandelson, Sarwar said that he had known him from around 2021. And he met him when he was ambassador, and Sarwar was visiting Washington.
But he now thinks Mandelson betrayed his country.
He has betrayed this country. He has betrayed the party he was once a member of. And he has betrayed the public in terms of his actions and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Sarwar said Mandelson was not someone he wanted to be associated with.
And that was the end of the press conference.
Q: How did Starmer react when you told him what you were doing?
Sarwar says there is “probably no one in Scottish politics that has had a better relationship with Keir Starmer or a closer friendship with Keir Starmer than I have”.
They have campaigned together, he says.
So does this cause me personal hurt and pain? Of course it does. This man is someone that I regard as a friend and who I have a certain level of loyalty to.
But my first priority and my first loyalty has to be to my country, Scotland. And that’s the decision I have made in terms of the election on the 7 May.
Q: Are you comfortable being the person who pulled the trigger on Keir Starmer?
Sarwar says he is doing what he thinks is right for Scotland.
Q: How can we take you seriously when you described Peter Mandelson as a friend last year?
Sarwar says Mandelson “is not someone or something I want to be associated with”.
He says he met him in his capacity as ambassador to the US, because that was in the interests of Scotland.
UPDATE: The question was referring to this tweet.
Sarwar says he spoke to Starmer this morning to tell him what he would be saying. “It’s safe to say that he and I disagreed,” he says.
Q: Last week you told me Starmer could still be PM at the next election?
Sarwar says he said Starmer could stay on a PM. But he also said there had to be answers, and it is now clear there have been “too many incidences where the wrong judgement calls have been made”.
There have been too many mistakes, he says. That is distracting from the work of the government.
And it’s also distracting from the big choice that people in Scotland have to make in three months’ time.
Sarwar is now taking questions.
Q: Who do you want to replace Keir Starmer?
Sarwar says he is not backing an alternative candidate for leader.
Sarwar says the SNP government in Scotland is failing.
We have an NHS crisis where too many Scots cannot access the treatment they need and when they need it.
We have a housing emergency with more than 10,000 Scottish children homeless right now, and we have too many young people not feeling safe at school or on our streets, or missing out on the opportunities they deserve.
And we have an SNP government that is addicted to secrecy and cover ups with devastating consequences.
That is why I have to be honest about failure wherever I see it.
The situation in Downing Street is not good enough. There have been too many mistakes.
Sarwar says of course good things have been achieved.
But no one knows them and no one can hear them because they’re being drowned out.
That’s why it cannot continue.
Anas Sarwar says his first loyalty is to Scotland.
This has not been easy, he says.
But he says his first loyalty is to Scotland. And he is not willing to sacrifice Scotland’s schools and hospitals to a third decade of SNP rule.
I am not willing to sacrifice Scotland’s NHS, our schools, our communities, our towns, cities, villages and islands to a third decade of an SNP government.
That’s why the distraction needs to end. And the leadership in Downing Street has to change.
It is so obvious that we desperately need change in Scotland and in three months’ time, the opportunity to get rid of a failing SNP government is one that is too important to be missed.
We cannot allow the failures at the heart of Downing Street to mean the failures continue here in Scotland, because the election in May is not without consequence for the lives of Scots.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is about to hold his press conference.
Until recently, he has been relatively loyal to Keir Starmer.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
