Why political scandal will be a strong feature of the 2026 Holyrood election campaign

Labour has been mired by the ongoing Peter Mandelson affair. Yes, he has resigned from the party and has been thrown out of the House of Lords in disgrace, but questions still remain for Sir Keir Starmer, his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and Scottish leader Anas Sarwar.

We can already see the strain this is placing on Mr Sarwar and the Scottish Labour Party. Having fallen from a high of challenging the SNP in the polls, Mr Sarwar seems unable to go any length of time without a Westminster-induced disaster unfolding in front of his eyes.

Since the beginning of the year Mr Sarwar has tried to put some distance between himself and the Prime Minister after years of trying to convince everyone they are the best of friends.

He is now having to distance himself even further from the UK-wide party in the wake of the Mandelson scandal. When asked about his appointment as the US ambassador this week, Mr Sarwar managed to criticise both Starmer and Mandelson in the one breath by saying the disgraced former MP should never have even been considered for high office.

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But Labour is not the only party embroiled in scandal.

The SNP is struggling to get to grips with the water contamination deaths at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

The more news that comes out on this story, the more red faces there are on the nationalist benches in Holyrood.

We are already seeing both parties using these scandals against each other as campaigning tactics.

Mr Swinney says he is appalled by the allegations against Mandelson and has even ordered his permanent secretary to open an official investigation.

Mr Sarwar has long pressured the SNP on the QEUH scandal, and we saw him getting particularly angry at the First Minister at Thursday’s FMQs.

This is probably going to set the backdrop for this election campaign. Each party will want to remind voters of the other party’s scandal as much as they possibly can.

It may turn into a mud-slinging match with whoever has the least amount sticking to them at the end being crowned the winner.

Over the past couple of years the SNP has managed to brush off several scandals that looked as if they might collapse the party.

Yet every time they have managed to pick themselves back up and are still leading in the polls - the question now is can they do this again with the QEUH scandal, which let’s not forget has caused several deaths.

The question for Mr Sarwar is can he persuade Scottish voters to ignore what is happening with the party down south. This will be a difficult one, especially as he is not short of internal Scottish scandals himself.

Colin Smyth is due in court on an indecent child images charge and had his Holyrood pass taken off him for illicit recording devices in a parliamentary toilet.

Pressure is growing to remove the whip from Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP over her relationship with a sex offender.

One thing to keep in mind here is Reform UK could come through the middle of the SNP-Labour shouting match. The ‘newcomers’ will want their opponents to keep squabbling amongst themselves as much as possible.

It would be almost entertaining to watch if the scandals were not so horrendous on both sides.