Few people were as close as myself and Starmer in politics – Sarwar

Few people have had as close a relationship in politics as Anas Sarwar and Sir Keir Starmer, the Scottish Labour leader has said.

Mr Sarwar said there is “no doubt” his decision to call for the Prime Minister to resign hurt Sir Keir on a personal level, but admitted he also “found some personal pain and hurt” from doing so.

He said it is now “difficult” to maintain a good personal relationship with the Prime Minister.

He also suggested that questions from reporters on Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein helped changed his view on the matter.

Appearing on the BBC’s Scotcast podcast, Mr Sarwar was asked about his relationship with the Prime Minister.

He said: “I think there will be very few people in politics that had as close a relationship as I had with him, and so it was very personally difficult.

“I actually found the personal bit a bit more difficult than the politics of it, because as I say, I do genuinely like him as a human being. I do think he’s a man of decency and integrity. I do think that he wants to work best for our country.

“But as I say, I’m the one that’s got to face the electorate. I’m the one that’s got to meet people at their eye, and I’ve got to tell them who I am.”

Mr Sarwar said he would have loved to maintain a good personal relationship with the Prime Minister but “as you can imagine it’s difficult”, before adding it is “still professional”.

He told the podcast: “I think it’s safe to say that saying what I said will have hurt him. No doubt that will have hurt him on a personal level.

“I know that I found some personal pain and hurt from that because of the personal relationship that we had, or have, whatever way you’d choose to describe it.”

Mr Sarwar suggested questions about Lord Mandelson, the UK’s former US ambassador, and his relationship with late paedophile financier Epstein were an “eye opener” for him.

He spoke about being stopped by reporters after being in the Holyrood chamber raising issues around the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in the wake of deaths linked to infections there.

He said: “I left the Parliament and walked out of the Parliament chamber, and you have the press pack outside for the doorstep, and every single question I got was about Mandelson and Epstein.

“That, to be honest, was a real eye opener. I was talking about probably one of the most significant campaigns that I’ve been involved in in my entire time of politics, supporting these families and supporting these whistle-blowers at the Queen Elizabeth, but these were the questions I was getting.

“Did it give me pause for thought? Absolutely. It made me think for a number of days about what’s happening, what the situation is, and did that have a monumental bearing on my view, and what I said? Absolutely it did.”