ANAS Sarwar has said that “some of the criticisms” labelled at Keir Starmer are “unfair” as he defended the Labour leader’s stance on immigration.
Speaking in an interview with The Herald, the Scottish Labour leader was quizzed on a number of issues from the upcoming Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election to divides with UK Labour.
Asked if Labour “still embraced socialism” under Starmer, Sarwar said that “our broad church is still underpinned by left and left-of-centre politics”.
On immigration, he was asked about the Labour leader’s position on housing migrants on barges.
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock has previously said barges and military camps would still be used to temporarily house asylum seekers if Labour wins the next General Election.
Although he said this made him “deeply unhappy”, he added that it was the only way to “deal with the mess we inherit”.
Sarwar said: “He [Starmer] was misrepresented on the barges. He said he wanted no barges, no hotels and no flights to Rwanda.
“Day one might be difficult but on the principal we don’t want them. Some of the criticisms of Keir are unfair.
“The SNP want to pretend this will be a no-change election. But this is a fundamental-change election.
“They’re running their entire election strategy on this because they don’t have a good record to stand on. They know that a UK Labour government is bad for them.
“For the last 16 years they’ve fed off the Tories being in power.”
A date is yet to be set for the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, which was triggered following the removal of ex-SNP MP Margaret Ferrier.
The Sunday National previously spoke with the SNP’s candidate Katy Loudon who said that people were picking up on “flip-flopping” from Labour.
On the upcoming by-election, Sarwar said: “We used to be scared of by-elections. Now it’s the SNP turn to be scared of them.”
