John Swinney says UK Government 'riven with internal dissent' as Downing Street briefing row rocks Labour - Daily Record

A senior Labour source in Scotland described the row as an "entirely self-inflicted wound".

John Swinney has claimed the UK Government is "riven with internal dissent" after a Downing Street briefing row rocked Labour last night.

Wes Streeting was today forced to deny he was seeking to oust Keir Starmer after a flurry of late-night briefings from Number 10 in defence of the leader’s job.

The UK Health Secretary firmly rejected any notion he was involved in a plot to become the next PM and said those who spread such rumours should be sacked.

Speaking on a visit to Glasgow today, John Swinney said people in Scotland will be “taken aback” by the internal wrangling at the top of the UK Government.

"The Labour Government is riven with internal dissent,” he said. "When people voted for the Labour Government in the summer of last year, they expected them to come in and clear up the mess of the Tories.

"Now, just over a year later, the Labour Government is riven with internal dissent and that’s because the Labour Government is not delivering for people in this country.”

The First Minister added: "Their performance has been poor as a Government and that’s obviously reflected in Keir Starmer’s leadership.

"What we are facing is a situation where our task in Scotland is made more difficult because we’re got a very poorly performing UK Labour Government who replaced a poorly-performing Tory Government.

"It just goes to show that Government in London is damaging for Scotland and certainly people in Scotland will be feeling profoundly disappointed by the performance of the Labour Party after last night’s events."

Anas Sarwar has so far not commented on the briefing row but is expected to face reporters in Holyrood tomorrow.

A senior Scottish Labour source told the Record: "This is an entirely self-inflicted wound… there's no need for it.

"It is a massively unhelpful and ill-disciplined briefing. It could come from the PM's own mouth and still be that.”

Speaking at PMQs today, Starme said "any attack on any member of my Cabinet is completely unacceptable". He insisted Streeting was doing a “great job” as he highlighted his record on turning around the NHS.

Streeting attacked whoever was responsible for the rumours, suggesting they had been “watching too much Celebrity Traitors”.

He told Sky News: “This is just about the worst attack on a faithful I’ve seen since Joe Marler was kicked out and banished in the final.

“It’s totally self-defeating briefing, not least because it’s not true and I don’t understand how anyone thinks it’s helpful to the Prime Minister either.”

Streeting said the briefings showed problems with the “culture in No 10”, although he added that “I’d just like to commend the briefer on at least picking on one of the men instead of the women in Cabinet” after a series of attacks on female ministers including Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy and Bridget Phillipson.

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