Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said he believes the election of Sir Keir Starmer would be the first time in 14 years that a Prime Minister has been invested in Scotland.

Mr Sarwar met stallholders at Loch Lomond Shores in Balloch, West Dunbartonshire, on Sunday and admired Scotch pies and regional cheese.

He bought sweets for staff on his campaign bus and was told by a stallholder: “Keep up the good work.”

Mr Sarwar, wearing a navy blue blazer, jeans and Hugo Boss trainers, posed with a coaster he was given reading “Gaun Yersel”, which means “go for it”.

He said he is making each day count before the General Election, and insisted the Labour Party is committed to challenging misogyny and sexism.

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The Scottish Labour leader said: “I don’t do celebrations: I’m one of those people that, when they have good moments, enjoys them for about 10 minutes and then moves on to the next challenge.

“We’ve still got four days in which to make sure we get rid of the Tories and elect a Labour government and I’m taking nothing for granted, and that’s not decided yet.

“So we’ve got work to do. We’ve got to get to work straightaway to deliver for people because there’s far too many people facing far too many challenges.

“We’ve got no time to waste to change people’s lives.”

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He added: “I haven’t read Keir Starmer’s biography, I’ll ask him to summarise it.”

Describing his relationship with the Labour leader, Mr Sarwar said: “He knows that he will always have in me someone that wants to see a Labour Party succeed, someone who wants a UK Labour government, and someone who will always fight Scotland’s corner.

“I know that we will have a prime minister for the first time in 14 years that understands Scotland and cares about Scotland.

“It’s one of the reasons why so many people have been driven towards the SNP and independence as they’ve looked at Tory governments and thought ‘these people don’t care about us – they’re not delivering for us’.

“Of course, there’ll be moments that we have difficult conversations, moments where we’ll be challenging each other, that’s the right thing to do.”

Meanwhile, First Minister John Swinney continued to highlight the delays in postal votes are affecting Scots who will be on holiday on polling day on Thursday.

He said there was “nothing that can be done” about postal votes that have not yet arrived for voters who are now overseas.

The SNP leader said he had “made it very clear about the fact some people will be disenfranchised” if their postal votes cannot be filled out and returned on time.

Mr Swinney said there had been “significant reports of people who were trying to vote by post who had applied properly for a postal vote before the deadline of June 19”.

Speaking to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News, Mr Swinney said: “Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done.

“They have to be here to be able to exercise their postal vote, if it’s been delivered to the house, or if there is an alternative arrangement in place.

“There are no other proxy arrangements that can be put in place, but I think it’s illustrative of the fact there was no thought given to summer school holidays.”

Local councils are responsible for sending postal ballot forms to voters.

Completed postal votes must have reached councils by 10pm on polling day, July 4.

They can be returned by post or handed in at council offices and can also be dropped at the correct polling station on election day.

Mr Swinney added: “I warned when the election was called that it was going to take place during the Scottish school summer holidays and many of our schools broke up for the summer last week.

“Those postal ballots have not arrived with people and some of them have now left the country, and they have been disenfranchised because of the timing of the election, which is something I deeply regret.

“I warned about the decision to have the election during the school holidays and welcome the fact that a number of local authorities in Scotland have taken emergency measures to establish centres which could enable people to exercise their postal vote.”

He said the SNP was a “unified and cohesive political party”, and the main concerns for voters were the cost-of-living crisis, cuts in public services and public spending.

Mr Swinney said the party had had “a bit of a tough time”, but added that voters “will get a substantial number of greater services that are provided by the Scottish Government that better meet their needs than other parts of the United Kingdom”.