Too little too late – young Scottish Labour members' verdict on campaign launch

ANAS Sarwar is “not meeting the moment” and is pitching policy “too late” in the day to save Scottish Labour in the Holyrood election, young party members have told the Sunday National. The Scottish Labour leader stood in front of a large Saltire in Glasgow last week, pledging “change” in the country and positioning himself as John Swinney’s main challenger for first minister as he fired the starting gun on their campaign. Painting the election as a two-horse race between them and the SNP, he insisted time and again that “we will win” on May 7 as he tried desperately to rally his troops, telling them it is “not an opportunity we will miss”. But there is concern among Labour ranks with less than six weeks to go until voters take to the ballot box. A Lord Ashcroft poll last week suggested the party would end up in fourth place in terms of number of seats at Holyrood behind the SNP, Reform UK and the Greens. READ MORE: Redrawn Edinburgh constituency likely battlefield for SNP and Labour And despite some policy being pitched at the campaign launch – including a pledge to recruit 2000 specialist teachers to help children who have fallen behind, as well as 1500 extra classroom assistants – young Labour members have indicated they remain unconvinced by Sarwar’s approach. Lauren Harper, who is a youth representative on the party’s Scottish Executive Committee, said while she felt Sarwar is recognising the right issues, he is not being ambitious enough. Reflecting on the campaign launch, she said: “I thought that they had a correct analysis of the problem. Years of austerity from both the SNP and the Tories have decimated Scotland’s public services, but Anas Sarwar is not meeting the moment. “I’d like to see more radical and redistributive policies to tackle the cost of living and the massive wealth disparities that exist in Scotland. Until Anas does that, we won’t beat Reform. “I think we are identifying the right problems but are not being ambitious enough in our response.” Sarwar vowed his party “would fix the mess, get the basics right and build a better future” and snapped up the opportunity to shut down Swinney’s suggestion earlier that day that Labour could do a “grubby backroom deal” with Reform if voters don’t back the SNP. He pledged to build 125,000 homes and make rents more affordable, outlined plans for 9000 apprenticeships in key Scottish industries such as shipbuilding and vowed to not make any cuts to the Scottish Child Payment. But while 23-year-old Labour councillor Cameron Ramsay, who sits on South Ayrshire Council, said he felt the launch was “positive”, he said he felt policy pledges should have been revealed well before now, with the party scrapping for second place. He suggested candidates had felt frustrated when they were knocking on doors before Christmas, not knowing what Labour’s key policies were. He said: “I think I would’ve liked to have seen it [policy] earlier in the campaign. We’re less than 50 days off [from] the election, and I think now is the time we’re doing it, and it’s a wee bit too late.” Asked why he thought key policies were not being pitched until now, he went on: “I think you could look at internal issues in relation to the UK Labour Party and the Scottish Labour Party, especially with this strain between Anas and Keir [Starmer]. “I personally couldn’t tell you why, but I believe some of the candidates may have been frustrated that they’ve been knocking on doors since November, and they didn’t really know what the policy was going to be until February or March.” READ MORE: Will older people's priorities be considered in the Scottish election? Scottish Labour's position in the polls has shown no signs of improvement despite Sarwar's attempt to distance the party from its UK counterparts in calling for Keir Starmer to quit in February. Ramsay said he has been generally dissatisfied with communications within the party. “I think the communication that we’ve got going out doesn’t paint the true picture of what is actually being achieved,” he said: “For example, our campaign is built on this positive image of reversing austerity to local councils, fixing issues people genuinely want to see address – like the issues we have with health and social care bodies – but while all of these things were mentioned by the candidates, especially today [at the campaign launch], I think we need to be making a political argument as to why it is these issues need to be addressed.” Last week, Professor John Curtice told The National that Scottish Labour needed a “game-changing” revamp if they were to have any hope of clawing back support they had haemorrhaged since the General Election in 2024. He insisted the “vote Labour to show you don't like the SNP” campaign is not working and the party, alongside the Labour UK Government, lacked “vision” or a “sense of direction”. Leading pollster Mark Diffley, who runs the Diffley Partnership, said Scottish Labour had failed to “flood the market” with new ideas and waiting to put them in a manifesto few people would read a couple of weeks out from polling day would be too late. “We’ll see in the manifesto when we see it, but the risk of that is it’s quite late,” he said. “I think it is fair to say they haven’t flooded the market with a whole raft of new ideas. Many people would argue they’ve done quite a good job of holding the SNP to account on hospital scandals, ferries and other policy issues, but it isn’t just about that; it’s also about persuading people why they should vote for you. “From where I sit, it doesn’t look as if they’ve done a particularly good job of that yet and I guess the risk is if you are just relying on the manifesto well, A, lots of people don’t read manifestos, and B, that’s very late in the day if people do read them to be relying on the type of significant change they need to get back into the race.” Diffley added that Scottish Labour were being unrealistic in painting the election as a straight fight between them and the SNP. READ MORE: Holyrood election kicks off with 5 party launches in one day He suggested they were putting Sarwar front and centre of the campaign as a presidential-style candidate in the hope he will win the likeability battle between him and Swinney. “What Labour wants to do is to portray this as a straight fight between them and the SNP, which it isn’t in reality, but they want to portray it as a two-horse race,” he said. “I think Labour also think that, despite the leader favourability ratings in any poll that you care to look at, Anas Sarwar holds the advantage over John Swinney in terms of likability to the electorate so I think a lot of their campaign is focused around him in a presidential style candidate, because they think once voters see those two leaders then voters will prefer him. “Remember, most people aren’t paying any attention to any of this for four years and 11-and-a-half months, and then suddenly, in the last few weeks, they will pay attention. So […] there’s voters who he hopes will see this energetic, young, charismatic figure for the first time and like him on that basis.”