Anas Sarwar defends no coalitions for Labour after local elections as 'democractic'

Last week, Dumfries and Galloway Labour leader Elaine Murray, was the first high-profile local party leader to criticise Mr Sarwar's decision on coalitions, calling on Mr Sarwar to “trust local parties”

The Herald understands that at least one other group leader is also upset at the stance.

Labour’s Scottish Executive Committee (SEC) will have the final say on agreeing formal coalitions.

But Mr Sarwar has told The Herald that his policy will “change the way we do local democracy”, forcing individual issues to be more scrutinised and compromises built.

Polling has suggested that Labour is now edging ahead of the Conservatives, who are grappling with the Partygate scandal and the cost-of-living crisis.

Next month’s local elections could see Labour return to second place behind the SNP after slumping to the party’s worst ever showing at last year’s Holyrood election.

Mr Sarwar admitted that his part has “had a very difficult period” but acknowledged Labour has “made immense progresses in the last year”.

He added: “But I want us to demonstrate that progress on May 5.”

Asked about ruling out coalitions, the Glasgow MSP stressed that he would like to echo the model used by past minority governments at Holyrood.

He admitted that “the mistake we made when we were in government” at Holyrood was Labour “believed you had to have a clear majority that means a coalition is to operate”.

He said: “If we can form a minority government in the Scottish Parliament and then on individual issues try and build consensus to try and get it passed in the parliament, why can’t that same principle apply in local authorities?

“What we’re saying is if you’ve got a situation where the SNP and the Tories are both ruling out coalitions with each other and challenging Labour to do the same, let’s change the way we do local democracy – let’s have decisions made on what’s right for local communities on an individual basis rather than party political stitch-ups.”

Mr Sarwar was pressed on the impact of his policy on potentially putting councillors who are the junior partner in administrations out of a job.

He said: “I speak to our council leaders regularly, I speak to our councillors and our council candidates regularly.

“I want us to have as many Labour councillors as possible and I want us to be in position of making decisions and as many Labour councils as possible across the country.

“This is something that I think is good for local democracy and good for local communities.” The Labour leader said his party has so far run “the most active campaign”.

He said: “We are getting out there with a positive message about what we can do and what we can change and how we don’t have to go on with this constant decline that we have under both the SNP and Tories.”

Mr Sarwar has called for a “multi-layered approach” to dealing with the cost-of-living crisis, warning that “every level of government has to do more”.

He added: “In Scotland we don’t need to replicate the Rishi Sunak model.

“We should be doing that much more progressively.”

The Labour leader welcomed the temporary cut in off-peak rail fares next month but stressed that with ScotRail now under the ownership of the Scottish Government, “we should be much more ambitious”.

Mr Sarwar said that the past 12 years of Tory rule in Westminster and “all the madness we are seeing from the Conservative party”, all of that has been “a gift for the SNP” as well as “a recruiting tactic for the SNP’s campaign for independence”.

He added: “The sooner we can get rid of this criminal, our-of-touch, arrogant, shocking, comedic Tory Government led by Boris Johnson the better – that’s best for the United Kingdom and that’s best for Scotland in the United Kingdom.

“At the same time, that means the SNP have nowhere to hide – their failures will be much more to the fore and we can persuade people that we can do things differently in Scotland.”