Anas Sarwar is a hard man to find? Of course he is

Anas Sarwar was described as a “hard man to find” by his political rivals at the weekend. But when your two main opposition parties face defining moments in Holyrood, is that really such a bad thing?

The SNP’s leader at Westminster, Stephen Flynn, used his party’s conference address at the weekend to take aim at the Scottish Labour leader for what he described as his failure to “stand up” to the Prime Minister on spending decisions and the two-child benefit cap.

Mr Flynn told his party’s loyal delegates that Mr Sarwar had promised to be “the hard man of Scottish politics” by standing up to Sir Keir Starmer and the UK Government on policy disagreements which impacted Scotland.

He said: “Turns out he’s less hard man and more hard man to find.”

Now being accused of hiding away from major issues could be damaging for any politician, but especially for the Scottish Labour leader when the Prime Minister warned of more tough financial decisions to come.

But putting Westminster aside for a moment, when you look at the issues which have dominated Scottish politics in recent weeks, you can’t help but wonder if fading into the background could be a wise move.

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Let’s take the SNP – the party has just closed its three-day party conference in Edinburgh with an in-depth dissection of July’s difficult general election result, which saw just nine MPs returned to the SNP benches from 48 in 2019.

Many of the party’s high-profile politicians, including Alison Thewliss and Joanna Cherry, were among those to lose their seats.

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The party held a behind closed doors examination of where it went wrong and considered how Labour was able to sweep up most of the SNP’s lost seats. While delegates may have felt an air of positivity, there was an air of uncertainty at the mountain John Swinney’s party has to climb.

And it has been a tough week for the SNP-led Scottish Government in Holyrood, with swathes of cuts announced to public finances to fill a half a billion pound black hole.

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The Scottish Conservatives are also in the middle of a transition of their own as three senior MSPs compete to replace Douglas Ross as party leader.

On a UK level, the party also suffered a poor result at the general election, with Mr Ross among those facing an embarrassing lost after he put himself forward for the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat when former MP David Duguid was deselected due to “ill health”.

Whether it is Russell Findlay, Murdo Fraser or Meghan Gallacher who fills the Scottish Tory leadership job, they face a major challenge in uniting the party around a refreshed agenda and winning over voters who had abandoned the party for Labour or Reform.

So perhaps Anas Sarwar is enjoying the calm, waiting to see whether his rivals show signs of bouncing back.

Hard to find act must be temporary

But the challenge facing him will be making sure fading into the background is temporary as in a few weeks the Tories will have a new leader and will be looking to make a statement at the Scottish Parliament election in 2026.

Meanwhile, the SNP also has no choice but to look to the future as it faces up to the threat of Labour at Holyrood.

The latest polling from Norstat suggests it could be a scrappy affair, with Labour predicted to narrowly fall short of the most seats at Holyrood, with 40 to the SNP’s 41.

Experts predicted Labour would be most likely to form a government with pro-union support from the Liberal Democrats and the Tories.

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Flynn’s “hard man to find” description of the Scottish Labour leader accused him of “being tucked away trying to think of the latest excuse to justify the shifting sands coming from his bosses in London”.

Scottish Labour’s Dame Jackie Baillie hit back at the SNP’s criticism at the time, accusing the party of deflecting the blame to Westminster instead of acknowledging its own spending decisions.

However, with Labour in government in Westminster, it is those decisions taken south of the border – and how Mr Sarwar addresses them in Scotland – that could be pivotal to the 2026 election.

It’s exactly why allowing the SNP and the Tories to dominate the headlines must be temporary if his aspirations of being Scottish first minister are to be realised.