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Glasgow MSP Anas Sarwar has been elected the new Scottish Labor leader just 10 weeks before the Holyrood election.
The party was forced to vote for a new leader after Richard Leonard’s scandalous resignation in January, claiming his decision was “in the best interest” of the party.
Sarwar, who lost to Leonard in 2017, was quick to toss his hat into the ring, followed by MSP Central Scotland Monica Lennon.
The Glasgow MSP won the vote with 57.56%, while Ms Lennon took 42.4%.
Sarwar, who was an NHS dentist, is the first ethnic minority leader of a political party in the UK after his grandparents emigrated to Scotland from Pakistan.
He said it was “the greatest honor of his life” to be elected leader, but said he knows the Labor Party “has a lot of work to do to regain its confidence.”
“Because if we’re brutally honest, it hasn’t gotten the Scottish Labor Party it deserves,” he said.
“With increasing injustice, inequality and division, I regret that we have not been good enough.”
He promised to work “day and night to change that.”
Sarwar said it was “in my blood” to make change, and said his grandfather came to Lossiemouth 75 years ago “with nothing, looking for a better future.”
He said his grandfather found out about that and instead of going back to Pakistan, which he was destined to do, he took his family to Scotland.
“He would never have imagined that his grandson would one day be chosen to lead the Labor movement in Scotland,” Sarwar said.
Sarwar is a committed Brownite, mentions Gordon Brown in his acceptance speech, and has criticized both Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn.
He was elected MSP of Glasgow Central in 2010, replacing his father, Mohammed Sarwar, who was the UK’s first Muslim MP and became Governor of Punjab in Pakistan in 2018.
Labor ranks third in polls ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections in May, firmly behind the Tories while the SNP leads.
In the 2019 elections, the Labor Party recorded its worst result in Scotland since 1910, reducing its seats to just one.
Scotland’s parliament is currently in the midst of a scandal over former Prime Minister Alex Salmond’s evidence of the parliament’s inquiry into the handling of complaints against him.
A spike in support for independence in the context of Brexit and the pandemic is also something Sarwar will have to deal with ahead of the elections.
During his campaign, he said he was opposed to Scottish independence and urged parties supporting a split from the rest of the UK to put the issue aside and focus on the economic recovery from COVID-19.
