Sarwar set for ministerial role in Burnham's government after Starmer feud

Anas Sarwar was set to leave the Scottish Parliament and step down as Scottish Labour leader to take a ministerial post in Andy Burnham’s government, with elevation to the House of Lords expected to make the move possible. The role is understood to sit in the revamped Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, placing one of Labour’s most prominent Scottish figures inside Burnham’s new administration.

The appointment comes just over two months after Scottish Labour suffered its worst ever Holyrood result in May 2026, a setback that deepened pressure on the party in Scotland and underlined the scale of its internal upheaval. Burnham has already unveiled his cabinet after replacing Keir Starmer as UK prime minister, and Sarwar’s move adds another senior figure to a government still defining its balance between loyalty and dissent.

Sarwar’s rise is striking because he was the first major Labour figure to publicly call on Starmer to resign, doing so in February 2026 after the scandal over Starmer’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador escalated and after the departures of the prime minister’s chief of staff and director of communications. At the time, Sarwar became the clearest voice from Labour’s senior ranks to break cover against Starmer’s authority.

He later said he was “proud” of his work with Starmer despite that resignation call, and denied he was part of a wider plot to remove the prime minister. Starmer has since described Sarwar as someone for whom he has “huge respect”, a striking note of public restraint given the intensity of the feud only months earlier.

The promotion also fits a broader pattern inside Burnham’s reshuffle, in which other key Starmer critics have been given prominence. That has raised questions in Westminster and London about whether Burnham is building a pragmatic coalition from Labour’s internal fractures or simply absorbing former critics to steady his own administration. For Sarwar, the appointment ends a period in which he moved from challenger to insider, and it shows how sharply Labour’s discipline can bend when regional heavyweights are needed in power.