Judge Labour on handling of economy, says Anas Sarwar – as Scots leader pledges to spark housing boom

ANAS Sarwar yesterday insisted Labour should be judged on their handling of the economy and vowed to regain voters’ trust by kickstarting a housing boom.

The Scottish Labour leader launched a pre-conference charm offensive as figures revealed the UK had slipped into a recession.

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It means his party is set to inherit an economic crisis if polls are correct and Sir Keir Starmer seizes No10 at the next General Election, expected later this year.

As figures showed two straight three-month periods of negative growth, Mr Sarwar told The Scottish Sun in an exclusive interview: “We have to be judged on growing our economy.

“How we use the fruits of our economy to reform our public services, particularly health and social care. To demonstrate we can do politics differently.”

Despite the challenging picture from economists, Mr Sarwar was buoyed by predictions Labour could dislodge a clutch of Nats MPs at the next Westminster vote and even grab back power at the 2026 Holyrood elections.

Polling puts Labour and Nats virtually neck and neck in terms of vote share and number of seats, leaving results in Scotland on a knife-edge.

Ahead of Scottish Labour’s three-day conference getting underway in Glasgow today, he vowed not to repeat the mistakes of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who quit last year.

After pledging to put schools front and centre of her agenda, she was criticised for failing in a highly ambitious promise to wipe out the attainment gap.

Instead, Mr Sarwar was seen making final tweaks to his speech on stage at the Scottish Event Campus in Finnieston and claimed Labour would only make promises it could keep.

The Scots chief said it was “much more credible” for voters to have politicians that make pledges that “can actually be delivered”.

Among those priorities set to be unveiled today is a national planning unit to remove red tape, fast-track major home developments, tackle housing shortages and aid the economic recovery.

Mr Sarwar slammed the Holyrood-controlled planning system as “completely broken” under Nats’ leadership.

Figures for Glasgow show major applications took an average 74 weeks to be approved in July-September last year compared to 11 weeks for smaller bids.

And Mr Sarwar will today point to Manchester Labour mayor Andy Burnham for how things should be done more quickly with planning applications there limited to just 13 weeks.

He will tell Scottish Labour delegates: “Scotland’s planning system is too slow, under-resourced and is preventing development in our cities and rural areas.

“Our plans will end the long waits and clear the backlogs so that our towns and cities can become the hubs of development and industry.”

Mr Sarwar heads to conference after a bruising fortnight for Labour, despite encouraging polling north of the border.

He faced criticism after the head of an influential party think-tank was forced to apologise for suggesting people smugglers should be sent north of the border.

And he has had to defend another U-turn from the UK Labour leader.

Sir Keir ditched an annual £28billion green investments pledge and instead committed just £5billion.

He has also reversed on the nationalisation of railways and energy, abolishing the House of Lords and a crackdown on bankers’ bonuses.

But Mr Sarwar claimed the U-turns showed “political bravery” and would help the party rebuild trust.

The Glasgow MSP explained: “Politics was never meant to be about playing political games. It was always meant to be about public service, and I think that’s the test.”

Asked why anyone should believe Sir Keir given his policy reverses, Mr Sarwar said it was “more credible” to be totally honest with ordinary people.

He insisted: “I think it is much more credible for the public to have politicians that are only going to put forward policies that they know meet the economic challenges we face in our country and can actually be delivered.”

He was also pressed on whether the party’s Westminster chiefs had ditched plans simply as they were unpopular.

Mr Sarwar replied: “It is political bravery to say in opposition that this is not a policy we think is deliverable because of economic circumstances laid out before us by the Tories’ economic carnage.”

Sir Keir repeatedly defended the green cash commitment days before it was ditched. But Mr Sarwar denied this undermined voters’ faith.

He said: “We are only going to make promises that we know we can keep and are deliverable. That’s how you rebuild trust in politics.”

But the Scottish Labour boss vowed he will not roll back on his guarantee of “no coalitions or deals” after the 2026 Holyrood vote.

Polling suggests Mr Sarwar could replace Humza Yousaf as First Minister but could need to seek Lib Dem and Tory help with votes.

Mr Sarwar insisted: “We would do no coalitions and no deals.

“If people have individual policy areas they are more than welcome to support them but it will be a minority Labour administration.”

Pushed on whether he would rely on Conservative backing to win budget approval – like the SNP in their first term after they won power in 2007 – Mr Sarwar refused to commit. Instead he suggested they’d rely on Nats on policies they agreed on.

Meanwhile, he faced attacks from the SNP over Labour’s position on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Westminster Nats plan another Commons vote on the conflict next week. But Mr Sarwar claimed the Labour position was effectively the same as the SNP’s.

Asked how Ian Murray and Michael Shanks – the two Scottish Labour MPs –  would vote, he admitted: “We’re still to have those conversations.

“We support an immediate ceasefire.

“I want us to back the immediate end to fighting and immediate ceasefire.

“And a pathway to a two-state solution and the immediate release of hostages.”