I will stand up to Starmer

Scots Labour leader on his relationship with Keir and how he plans to work with him when he becomes PM

- PAUL HUTCHEON

ANAS Sarwar has promised he will stand up to Keir Starmer as prime minister if he does not make decisions in Scotland's interests.

The Scottish Labour leader said he wants a Starmer government to make early progress on workers' rights, green energy and rebooting devolution.

He also said he is hopeful of securing flexibility for Scotland on immigration to help attract skilled workers north of the Border. Sarwar made his comments in a Daily Record interview on the eve of his party conference in Glasgow.

Polls put Scottish Labour on course to win more than 20 seats from the SNP at the general election as a contribution to installing Starmer in Downing Street.

Sarwar also believes a Labour win at Westminster will be a springboard to toppling Humza Yousaf as First Minister at the 2026 Holyrood election.

He outlined what his priorities would be as First Minister: "The first and the most important one is how we get economic growth back into our economy.

"We have the UK economy being torn apart by the Tories and we have an SNP that has no economic growth plan for Scotland and that's holding back people in terms of fulfilling their opportunity, having meaningful work and therefore lifting themselves out of poverty and growing Scotland's economy.