ANAS Sarwar has issued a warning to Sir Keir Starmer that he will not become Prime Minister “unless he recognises the importance of Scotland” and focuses on winning back support north of the border.

Mr Sarwar was named the new leader of the Scottish Labour party on Saturday, securing the top job over challenger Monica Lennon.

The Glasgow MSP has insisted that Labour must do better in Scotland, insisting that the party “haven't been good enough”.

Some focus has been on Sir Keir prioritising winning back support from former Labour voters in the north of England who lost faith in his party over Brexit and were put off the party by his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

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Appearing on the BBC Sunday Show, Mr Sarwar was asked if that strategy to win back support from the “red wall” in England was at odds with his own message to Scottish voters.

But Mr Sarwar insisted “the first red wall that fell was Scotland”.

He added: “They can talk about the north of England being the red wall - the real red wall was Scotland.”

At the 2019 general election, Labour won just one MP in Scotland – with Ian Murray the sole politician elected to Westminster for the party north of the border.

Mr Sarwar added: “Scotland has been failed and we've got to rebuild in Scotland. Without Scotland we can't have a UK Government across the UK.

“Keir Starmer can say what he likes and do what he likes in the north of England but unless he recognises the importance of Scotland, we are not going to have a UK Labour government.

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“I will agree with him when he’s right, I will respect him, I will support him. I want him to be the Prime Minister but I will fight for what’s right for Scotland.”

Speaking on the Sophy Ridge Show, Mr Sarwar said he was “not naïve about the scale of the challenge” facing his party, but admitted that “we haven’t been good enough”.

Mr Sarwar was asked whether Labour turning to him and Sir Keir for the future of their movement was an admission the party can only win from the centre ground.

But Mr Sarwar said Labour must be “looking outwards rather than looking inwards” and “focus on what people’s priorities are” as we emerge from the pandemic “rather than the old arguments and old divisions”.

He was asked whether a second referendum on Scottish independence should take place if the SNP wins a majority following May's Holyrood election, with a manifesto pledge for a re-run of the 2014 poll to be held.

Mr Sarwar bluntly said he will continue to campaign for his view that a referendum should not take place.

He said: “Of course it is for the Scottish people to choose their own future but actually is it the right thing to have a referendum?

“I think coming through the collective trauma of Covid, where we have been separated from our families and our loved ones, we actually come together like a country like never before.

“The idea that we come through this and go straight into a divisive referendum campaign, I just don’t think is the right thing to do.

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“If I believe in something I’m going to argue for it. I don’t believe that independence is the right thing for Scotland coming through this pandemic.”

The Scottish Labour leader added that the “entre focus should be on saving livelihoods”.

He added: “Let’s have enough of politicians trying to present you with binary choices, whether it is Yes or No, Leave and Remain and forcing you to pick a side.

“Let’s instead look at what unites us as a country and focus on those issues in the next parliament.

“I don’t think people credibly believe that the Conservatives can deliver a recovery that works for everyone.

“The SNP are so blinded by their one priority that they can't be the ones that bring our country back together.”