"Keir Starmer's Struggles Spell Trouble for Labour, Opening Doors for SNP Gains in Holyrood This May"

LABOUR’s never-ending woes at Westminster really are the gift that keeps on giving for the SNP as May’s Holyrood election edges ever closer.

All eyes are on the relentless spread of the steaming sewer spillage that is Keir Starmer’s time as Prime Minister.

The PM’s top aide, Morgan McSweeney, resigned this weekCredit: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire Peter Mandelson’s treachery with convicted paedophile Jeffery Epstein appears to have cemented a remarkable turnaround in the Nats’ fortunesCredit: AP

Peter Mandelson’s treachery with convicted paedophile Jeffery Epstein appears to have cemented a remarkable turnaround in the Nats’ fortunes – all thanks to Labour self-harm.

Two years ago, hope had drained from the SNP.

We were in the last days of Humza Yousaf’s short reign as First Minister, the Scottish Greens were using every last ounce of their leverage to steer the Scottish Government towards Bonkersville, and were in the ascendancy.

In fact, the party’s leader was taking to the stage at this point in 2024 to Sia’s hit tune Unstoppable.

You may not remember that bizarre and vainglorious episode as – mercifully – you probably weren’t spending the weekend at their conference.

I was, and in a rare prophetic moment, I cautioned that pride comes before a fall.

Despite the supercharged reception Sarwar got, I pointed out he was far from “unstoppable”, and while he was riding the crest of the Starmer “change” wave (hard to imagine now, I realise) it was a long way until the 2026 Holyrood election.

Sarwar used the word “change” 61 times in that speech.

Unfortunately for – and fortuitously for the SNP – a great deal has changed in the past two years. Just not in the way Sarwar wants.


Labour’s Scottish leader could have his work cut out for him now

And the funny thing – well, funny for the Nats, anyway – is that neither Scottish Labour nor the SNP have had much sway over this stark change in the two parties’ fortunes.

As has been underlined by the events of the past week or so, Westminster is king in terms of public opinion.

This is especially true when something on the gargantuan scale of the Mandelson scandal crops up.

The Epstein affair and compelling evidence of Mandelson’s acts of betrayal as he cravenly sought to curry favour with a convicted paedophile is, truly, a scandal for the ages.

Starmer’s public standing was terrible even before the most insane of revelations about Mandelson feeding government secrets to Epstein, and before the PM was forced to humiliate himself in the Commons last week by saying on the record that when he appointed Mandelson as US ambassador, he KNEW about his post-conviction friendship with Epstein.

The Prime Minister may now be throwing Mandelson to the wolves, but nothing – not even yesterday’s resignation of the PM’s top aide, Morgan McSweeney, with his attempt to carry the can – will change the stomach-churning truth that he appointed him to the most important UK diplomatic post knowing full well he had maintained links to a child sex abuser.

I’ve been saying for some time now – though not specifically due to the Mandelson scandal – that Starmer is toast.

His popularity ratings are already worse than any PM apart from .

There is no way back. It is only a matter of time and he will not last until the next General Election – unless, of course, Labour have returned to their death-wish days.

As an aside, Sarwar will certainly be regretting posting a grinning snap of himself and “my old friend” Mandelson in Washington DC last April.

Frankly, the SNP could do worse than put it on a poster. Their election campaign is gearing up to be all about distracting from their own appalling record, so why wouldn’t they?

But back to that Westminster drama issue. People other than the anorak class – which I’m a reluctant member of – only have so much attention to spend on political matters.

The idea that anything going on at Holyrood will get a look-in when something on this scale is happening is for the birds.

The SNP’s botched superhospital vanity-project, the avoidable patient deaths that followed, the cover-ups and the blame-shirking is also a massive scandal.

Nobody died due to Mandelson being made US ambassador, or due to his leaks to Epstein, and an argument can easily be made that the Glasgow hospital fiasco is in fact more important than the Mandeslon-Starmer saga.

But the reality is that it is never going to get the same attention, not least because we are part of a London-based UK broadcast media landscape – where execs down south generally don’t care much about what happens in – are the ones who dictate what viewers are fed.

Scottish Labour and the SNP know full well that it is hard to get noticed amid the Westminster noise. That Holyrood and the Scottish parties are bystanders in a bigger story. Bit parts in the blockbuster.

For Scottish Labour, who want to shout about how terrible the Nats are, and how they can fix things, this is terrible. Sarwar was jumping around last week shouting about banning men from women’s prisons, and mobile phones from schools. Eye-catching policies that most may agree with. But the gaze isn not on him.

For the SNP, the lack of focus on is fantastic. Not only does it mean fewer people are paying attention to the mess they have made of many a thing, but they can make things worse for Labour by joining in the booing and hissing.

Making things even worse for Scottish Labour is that the “drain the swamp” sentiment will only grow in light of the Mandelson scandal, at the worst possible time.

That risks driving even more voters to at the Holyrood election on May 7.

Polls show that Scots may be fed up with the SNP, but they are more fed up with Labour at Westminster.

And behind the scenes, Scottish Labour types have been saying since 2024, when things very quickly – started going sour for Staner, that a reversal in their reversal in fortunes is just around the corner.

The trouble is, around every corner is another nightmare. And they’re only getting worse.