When Keir Starmer helped to launch Labour’s Scottish election campaign, he told effusive supporters in Glasgow: “There’s no change withoutSpeaking to reporters afterwards, the party leader emphasised that the raw mathematics were just one reason why Scotland would play such an important role in this election. “Yes, it’s about the numbers,” he said.
Scottish Labour is also clear that the current message of change applies as much to the Holyrood elections in 2026, when Sarwar hopes to end nearly two decades of SNP residency at Bute House.For Sunak, campaigning on constitutional grounds has proved successful in the past – remember the impact of those 2015 Conservative attack ads showing Ed Miliband stuffed in Alex Salmond’s pocket.
In this context, the challenge for Starmer would be to show that while Labour was a pro-union party, it was also progressive, suggested Talat Yaqoob, a consultant and co-founder of the equal representation campaign Women 50:50.