ANAS Sarwar has ruled out Scottish Labour entering a coalition with any other party after the 2026 Holyrood elections.
Speaking to political comedian Matt Forde at an Edinburgh Fringe event, the Scottish Labour leader said he aimed to lead a minority Scottish government.
Asked if he could rule out a coalition with the Scottish Greens, Sarwar said: “There will be no coalitions. We are going to go for a minority Labour government.
“I think one of the things that devolution was meant to be was not one party pretending they had a monopoly on everything, a monopoly on the parliament or a monopoly on ideas. It was meant to be about trying to pull together the best parts of Scotland and come up with a package of reform and delivery that delivers for every part of the country.
“So, we are going to go flat out to win the election, but my intention is to hopefully come out of that election to form a minority government and I hope to have a Labour first minister.”
It would be possible for Sarwar to take the first minister position without other parties’ support if Scottish Labour emerge as the largest MSP group after the 2026 Holyrood vote.
The House of Commons library explains the process: “If there is more than one candidate [for Scottish first minister] then the nominee must be chosen through an exhaustive ballot.
“MSPs vote in favour of their preferred candidate, or they abstain. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated each time until one candidate has received more votes in favour than the other candidates combined.”
Sarwar’s comments pour cold water on the idea that he and the Scottish LibDems are considering a cooperation deal, which The New Statesman’s Chris Deerin reported in June was “beginning to look like a plan”.
However, Sarwar had previously insisted that Scottish Labour would not strike any deals with any other parties ahead of the 2022 local elections, only for agreements to then be struck, including with the Tories in Stirling and SNP in Dumfries and Galloway.
Elsewhere at his appearance at the Fringe, the Scottish Labour leader was asked what his party’s 2026 election manifesto might look like. Sarwar said the first priority would be economic growth, followed by reform of health and social care.
“The way I think about our economic policy is that we have spent the last 17 years in Scotland trying to sell Scotland to the Scots, trying to persuade us that Scotland is brilliant,” he said.
“We all know Scotland's brilliant. We all know it's fantastic. We're all biased. We all think it's the best nation in the world. I believe it's the best nation in the world. But I want us to go away from trying to sell Scotland to the Scots and go back to selling Scotland to the rest of the UK and to the rest of the world.
“What I mean by that is, what are our expertise that we have a disproportionate knowledge and expertise on? That's our renewable sector. It’s, of course, our energy sector. I think it could be potentially in tech.We've also got a massive space industry in Scotland that we don't champion enough. Tourism is a huge opportunity.
“All of that I think of as brand Scotland.”
He went on: “Getting the economics right, getting the jobs, the well-paid jobs and the successful businesses right, is so important, because people will look at the Labour Party and rightly view us as a vehicle for social change, but I recognise that you only get to deliver social change if it's backed up with a strong, growing economy. So we're going to put economic policy front and centre.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who led the Labour Party to victory in the General Election in July, taking 37 Scottish seats on the way, also prioritised economic growth over anything else.
Sarwar told the Edinburgh crowd he had made no secret of the fact that, in order to stand the best chance of winning at Holyrood in 2026, he needed Starmer’s Labour government to be popular.
The SNP have been in power in Scotland since 2007, when Alex Salmond took over from a Labour-LibDem coalition.
