Humiliation for Labour in Scotland as Sarwar admits defeat

By SOPHIE CHURCH - POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 17:16, 8 May 2026 | Updated: 17:28, 8 May 2026 Anas Sarwar has admitted Scottish Labour is 'hurting' as Labour suffers yet another humiliating beating in this year's local elections. Conceding defeat after just seven of Holyrood’s 129 seats had been declared, the Scottish Labour leader said Labour had 'made an argument for change' but ultimately it was 'an argument we lost'.   He added there is 'a national wave of disappointment' that Scottish Labour had failed to overcome.  And while Keir Starmer said on Friday morning he is 'not going to walk away' after a bruising set of results across England, Wales and Scotland, Mr Sarwar reiterated his calls for the PM to step down. 'My party is hurting today and it’s my job to hold it together,' he said. 'We will continue to fight for the change we believe Scotland so desperately needs.' Just hours after his speech, Mr Sarwar lost to the SNP by more than 5,000 votes in his bid to win a constituency seat. He held his seat on the regional list in 2021, but had hoped to win the Glasgow Cathcart and Pollok constituency.  Mr Sarwar has in recent months been trying to distance Scottish Labour from Sir Keir's Westminster operation.  Anas Sarwar said there is 'a national wave of disappointment' that Scottish Labour had failed to overcome as he conceded defeat in the Holyrood elections Speaking at the election count in Perth , Scottish First Minister John Swinney said his victory came as a 'moment of enormous, enormous significance' to him personally And he remained the only senior Labour figure to call for Sir Keir's resignation in February, when the PM came perilously close to being ousted over his appointing of Peter Mandelson to US envoy.  Capitalising on Labour's implosion and redrawing of Scottish constituency boundaries, the BBC is now forecasting that the SNP will win up to 63 seats - but fall short of an overall majority.  John Swinney, Scotland's First Minister and leader of the SNP, was re-elected to his Perthshire North constituency with 16,414 votes, giving him a majority of just over 6,000. Speaking at the election count in Perth, Mr Swinney said his victory came as a 'moment of enormous, enormous significance' to him personally.   And he said his retaking of the Perth seat was a sign of more gains to come as he predicted the SNP to become the largest party in the Scottish Parliament. In the biggest upset of this election so far, the SNP swiped Shetland from the Liberal Democrats - a constituency Mr Swinney's party has long-targeted but has been held by the Libs for nearly 30 years. And SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn also won a seat in the Scottish Parliament, taking the constituency of Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine. Flynn came in ahead of the Conservatives, with a slim majority of 1,244. The Aberdeen South MP - known for his hard-edged attacks on the Prime Minister in the Commons Chamber - will have to step down from Westminster to take up his seat at Holyrood. But the SNP also fell victim to a Green Party surge, with former Scottish Greens leader Lorna Slater taking Edinburgh Central. Speaking ahead of the count, Ms Slater said the Greens were 'hoping for a record result'.  This pushed Angus Robertson, an SNP minister, into third position.  No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.