"I have to do what's right for my country": Scottish Labour leader calls for PM to resign

It's a cloudy Wednesday morning in Glasgow, the largest city North of the border, and there is tension in the air. Just two weeks ago, news broke of two additional deaths linked to contaminated water at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. Three days later in the Commons, Keir Starmer urged Scottish voters to choose between "a third decade of failure under the SNP, or real change for Scotland under Anas Sarwar". Today, the latter has called on him to resign.

The Labour government is facing perhaps its biggest crisis yet. The appointment of Peter Mandelson, who may have leaked British government information to convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein in 2009, as US Ambassador has brought the party to its knees. Mandelson has since been sacked, and apologies have been issued at the dispatch box in Westminster, but for Sir Keir, it's too little and too late.

Elected to his post in 2021, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was previously a keen ally of Starmer's, but has claimed that a change in national leadership is "best for Scotland". The 42-year-old, a Glasgow native, has his eyes on the Holyrood elections in May, and argued that the Mandelson-shaped hole in Number 10 has become a distraction.

"In three months, we have an election that must be about one thing, and one thing only: Scotland", Sarwar claimed in a press conference this afternoon. The Scottish National Party have been in power since 2007, but have drawn fiercely renewed criticism from Sarwar in recent weeks - "we have an SNP government with an addiction to secrecy and cover-ups", claimed the MSP.

Just this morning, Keir Starmer lost his director of communications, Tim Allan. Yesterday, his chief of staff resigned. Now, the Prime Minister cannot count on the support of his Scottish counterpart.

Crucially, though, the Labour frontbenches have come out swinging. Sir Keir's personal Mount Rushmore - Reeves, Lammy, Nandy, Healey - have all backed the Prime Minister in his fight against Sarwar's rebellion. The Scottish Labour leader's press conference is an unprecedented, historically disastrous moment for the wider party but thus far, Starmer has avoided the cabinet rebellions that brought down his predecessors: Johnson and May.

Labour commands a parliamentary majority of 168 - higher than that of Tony Blair's 2001 government. July 2024 saw the demolition of their historic counterparts in the Conservative Party. Not even two years later, there is a sinking feeling in every red-rosetted chest. A government that promised stability after 14 years of fractious Tory rule is now in crisis.