Anas Sarwar said on TV he wanted Reform to be ‘pumped’ in the Scottish Elections.

It turns out it was the Scottish Labour leader who took the pumping.

While the scale of Labour’s defeat is greater than anyone foresaw many of us had predicted a long time ago there was little chance of victory.

Now let’s get Sarwar’s ready-made excuse out the way, first. Over the next few days he will blame everything on Sir Keir Starmer’s unpopularity.

If, as seems likely, there is going to be a challenge to the Prime Minister, expect Sarwar to join it with gusto, claiming that it is he, not John Swinney, who prevented him from entering Bute House.

Like all plausible excuses there is some truth in it. The public’s disdain for Starmer meant he was a barrier to victory no one would be able to clear. But that does not mean he can be held responsible for a defeat of this scale. The blame for that lies squarely in the office of the Scottish Labour leader.

Because the foundations of this result were built well before Starmer became enemy No.1 in the eyes of the voters.

As early as 2023, Sarwar and the Scottish Labour leadership believed the seemingly inevitable Labour landslide in the UK general election would lead to a Labour landslide at the Scottish election two years later.

When victory came in 2024, confidence grew in the plan – but it was a plan for victory with no effort. It would just come.

Senior members of the UK party confidently opined that the SNP were finished, indeed, none other than Sarwar’s one time ‘old friend’ Peter Mandelson came north to tell us the Nats were done.

But even the most cursory knowledge of Scottish electoral history would have told them there is no correlation between general election results and votes for Holyrood.

Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide was followed by a decent but unspectacular victory for Donald Dewar in 1999. Blair’s 2001 landslide was followed by First Minister Jack McConnell losing seats in 2003.

The 2010 general election saw a landslide in Scotland for Gordon Brown. Just 12 months later Alex Salmond’s SNP routed Scottish Labour.

Sarwar’s ‘cunning plan’ was flawed from the start.

But since Salmond’s victory by one seat in 2007, Scottish Labour has been in the huff with voters, expecting a repentant Scottish public to eventually see the error of their ways, instead of asking themselves why they have lost seats at every successive Holyrood election since Dewar’s victory.

In July 2024, the party decided the day of repentance had come. Sarwar saw no need for policy. No need for a vision of what a Labour Scotland might look like. It was Labour’s turn after 20 years as they pleaded with the Scottish public that the SNP had hogged government for too long and it was time for them to get a shot, like a younger brother complaining his elder had dominated the family X-Box for too long.

Unfortunately, the public didn’t see things that way. On the doorstep voter after voter told them that, yes, the SNP were crap, but so were Scottish Labour.

The Nats had been a terrible government for nearly 20 years but Scottish Labour had been an even worse opposition.

Sarwar nonetheless believed his charm would beat the charisma free Swinney in a head to head race. The self-confidence meant he did not address any of his negatives nor recognise that his approval ratings were worse than the First Minister’s.

To many Sarwar appears lightweight, vain and entitled.

Putting out videos of his giggling out-takes during his Christmas message, of him going go-karting, or upbraiding a photographer for making him look like a ‘stroke victim’ underlined these negatives.

Unable to take the blame for anything, Sarwar tried to blame Starmer. For 18 months he had said his close relationship with the PM was a unique selling point which should make people vote for him. Suddenly he called on Starmer to resign, ironically over the Mandelson affair, a man Sarwar used to describe as his ‘old friend’.

It backfired badly in focus groups with Labour voters and undecideds. Voters could see what he was doing and saw it as a cheap, insincere trick which reeked of disloyalty.

Sarwar had nothing left in his locker because he hadn’t done the hard work he should have started at least two years ago.

He did not try to persuade Scotland with a vision of a Labour future. Instead, he tried to make us fall for his charm and got a helluva knockback.

Grins and gimmicks do not pave the way to government.

 Paul Sinclair is former senior Scottish Labour adviser.