ANAS Sarwar has been accused by the SNP of “not being straight with the people of Scotland".
It comes after The National revealed that the Home Office has no record of any correspondence with Sarwar on migration despite the Scottish Labour leader claiming to be in “talks” with the department about the possibility of tailored policies for Scotland.
Sarwar claimed last month to have been in talks with Cooper and Home Office ministers and said “they recognise there are different migration needs in different parts of the country”.
In response to an FOI request for “any correspondence between the Home Secretary or Home Office ministers and Anas Sarwar MSP containing any of the following words: ‘immigration’, ‘rural visa’, ‘Scottish Visa’ or ‘migration’”, the department said: “The Home Office does not hold the information which you have requested.”
Sarwar has also been under fire recently on his General Election pledge that Labour would save jobs at Grangemouth after hundreds of workers were sent redundancy letters last week.
This came despite Sarwar having said, in a debate in June last year, that a Labour Government “would step in and put our money where our mouth is and invest … and step in to save the jobs at the refinery”.
“We would put hundreds of millions of pounds behind it to make it a reality,” he added at the time.
Now, SNP MSP Stuart McMillan (above) has said that Sarwar has a “growing track record of failing to be straight with the people of Scotland”.
“Less than a year ago he promised he would step in to save the Grangemouth oil refinery – now he is washing his hands of any responsibility.
“And now we find out that despite claiming to be pushing the UK Government for a unique Scottish visa – the Home Office has absolutely no record of any correspondence with him.
“Too often Anas Sarwar says one thing then does another – and his complete inability to stand up to Keir Starmer's unpopular UK Government is becoming ever more embarrassing for Labour MSPs in Scotland.
"The contrast with an SNP Government under John Swinney who will always stand up for Scotland couldn’t be clearer.
"After a dreadful couple of months for Anas Sarwar, it's no wonder that more and more people are questioning his leadership."
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “Who?”
