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Who is Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar? – BBC News
Anas Sarwar: The basics
Education: Hutchesons’ Grammar School then Glasgow University, where he studied dentistry
Family: Anas Sarwar and his wife Furheen have three children together
Parliamentary constituency: MSP for Glasgow region in the Scottish Parliament
Who is he?
Politics is in Anas Sarwar’s blood. He is the son of millionaire businessman Mohammad Sarwar, who was the UK’s first Muslim MP.
Anas Sarwar was educated at Hutchesons’ Grammar School – a private school on the south side of Glasgow – then attended Glasgow University, where he studied dentistry.
After five years working as a dentist in Paisley, Mr Sarwar stood for Westminster.
What was his route to power?
Anas Sarwar joined the Scottish Labour party at the age of 16.
He took over his father’s seat – Glasgow Central – in 2010.
He held the seat until the 2015 election, when the SNP won all but three seats in Scotland.
Anas Sarwar then turned his attention to Holyrood and was elected a list MSP for Glasgow in 2016.
The following year, he ran for Scottish Labour leader. He was firmly in the New Labour camp, while his opponent – Richard Leonard – was seen as an ally of Jeremy Corbyn. Mr Leonard won.
But the next time the top job came up – in 2021, less than three months before the Holyrood election – Anas Sarwar won.
He became the first non-white leader of a major political party in the UK.
What are his key pledges?
Mr Sarwar says this election is an opportunity to deliver change “for this generation and the next”.
Scottish Labour’s key pledges are to:
- Deliver economic stability and grow the economy
- Cut NHS waiting times
- Set up Great British Energy to create jobs and cut energy bills
- Ban zero-hours contracts, end “fire and rehire” and deliver a genuine living wage
What state are Scottish Labour in?
Labour is at a historic low in terms of its representation in Scotland, having slipped to third place at Holyrood and returning just one MP in 2019.
It’s a far cry from the party’s past dominance, when it built the original “red wall” across the central belt and sent prime ministers, chancellors and home secretaries to Westminster.
It has been a turbulent period. Since Jack McConnell was ousted as first minister in 2007, Scottish Labour has had seven leaders. It has struggled to come up with an answer to the constitutional question, and found itself shut out of the binary debate over independence.
But Anas Sarwar will be hoping that his partnership with Sir Keir Starmer could produce a winning formula at Westminster – and beyond that to be first Scottish Labour leader to actually gain seats at Holyrood, in his bid to return to government there too.
Read the profiles of other Scottish party leaders here:
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