THE Jouker can think of any number of ways people might describe Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar.
But while we might know him as the branch office manager, a major news outlet has now taken something of a different approach.
In a new piece from Politico, Sarwar has been described as the “next king of Scotland” and the “undoubted rising star of Holyrood politics”.
It comes in quite the week for Sarwar, in which he has so far failed to sack a candidate who claimed his party were up for backing the Tories. That’s right, the Tories led by Boris Johnson at the 2019 General Election.
The piece predicts that Sarwar will “end the SNP’s stranglehold in Scotland” come July 4 but adds that he is “steeped in grand political tradition” given that his father Mohammed Sarwar served as the governor of Punjab.
The Scottish Labour leader was drawing praise for everything from his political know-how to his dress sense.
“He’s a slick dresser, eschewing dull gray for fitted dark suits,” the piece says.
“He launched his party’s manifesto from a Scottish rugby stadium last week in a crisp white shirt, sleeves rolled up – very Blair, and also very Starmer.
“He often drops the tie, too.”
The praise didn’t end there as readers are told that “Sarwar [below] has a ready charm and is close to the Holyrood press pack in a way that more aloof politicians, such as [Nicola] Sturgeon, never were”.
And how could we not want a man to be our next “king” given that he apparently calls everyone, from journalists to shadow cabinet ministers, “chief”.
Sarwar was even so bold to suggest that he was able to change his boss Keir Starmer’s mind on a few things, including the headquartering of the famous GB Energy in Scotland rather than elsewhere in the UK.
There were some negatives though, with one Labour official telling Politico that Sarwar’s influence on Starmer, the man likely to be the next prime minister, would be similar to a “mid-level shadow Cabinet member”.
It’s hardly a description befitting of a “king” is it?
