'I'm not rummaging': Sir Keir Starmer dodges poll question over Scottish Labour election hopes

Anas Sarwar has seen the likelihood of his party forming the next Scottish Government after the 2026 Holyrood election slashed as Labour’s standing in the polls across the UK and in Scotland has plummeted.

The drop in support for Labour has coincided with Sir Keir entering Downing Street, with a series of unpopular policies brought forward following last year’s general election victory, including cutting winter fuel payments.

But asked about whether his personal unpopularity was harming Mr Sarwar’s chances for Bute House, the Prime Minister told journalists in Glasgow he was not concerned by the polling.

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He said: “Since I’ve been in government, I've focused on delivering for the people in Scotland. I don’t get up and start rummaging around opinion polls or look at what pundits are saying.

“I’ve been working with Anas, particularly in the last few weeks because Anas and I have been very closely working on the Grangemouth announcement. We’ve been focused on that.”

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Sir Keir added: “We’ve not even discussed the polls. We discussed ‘can we make sure the Grangemouth proposition is the very best it can possibly be for the future of Scotland’. That’s what I’m going to carry on doing.

“I said I would deliver for the people of Scotland.”

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In his keynote speech to the Scottish Labour conference, the Prime Minister addressed the surge of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. He insisted Mr Farage’s party was “not the answer for Scotland” and “not the answer for working people in Britain”.

Sir Keir said “they claim to be the party of patriotism, but they’re fawning over [Vladimir] Putin”.

In response, Mr Farage claimed that jobs were being lost in Scotland because of Sir Keir’s Labour government.

He said: “How dare Starmer talk to us about jobs, Scotland has lost more than 70,000 jobs linked to the North Sea as a result of government net zero policies over the past decade.

"Starmer's disastrous budget kicks in on April 1 and will cost even more jobs in Scotland because of his National Insurance contribution rises imposed on businesses.”