Starmer would not be drawn on whether his job was at risk if Labour performs badly at the Scottish Parliament election in May.
16:23, 15 Jan 2026
Keir Starmer has refused to say if he is putting Scots off voting Labour – or if his job could be on the line if his party performs badly in May’s Holyrood election.
The Prime Minister travelled north on Thursday ahead of the Scottish election, with Nigel Farage and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also in Scotland today.
The visits came as the first opinion poll of 2026 in Scotland showed Labour fighting with Reform for second place in the Holyrood election – with John Swinney’s SNP on course for a fifth consecutive victory.
Asked directly by the media if his position could be at risk if Labour struggles in May, Starmer would only say that his job “is to deliver for Scotland”.
Challenged on whether he is putting voters in Scotland off supporting Labour, the Prime Minister again said: “My job is to deliver for Scotland.”
Speaking on a visit to Perth, he made clear May’s election is not about his performance or his Government at Westminster, adding it is to decide “who governs Scotland”.
Labour is desperate to oust the SNP – which has been in charge at Holyrood since 2007 – from power, with Starmer saying after 19 years of SNP in government, Scotland has a “health service where there’s too many people on the waiting list”, and “education and public services which are on their knees”.
The UK Government awarded “records amount of money” to Scotland at its last budget, Starmer added, questioning what it has been spent on by Swinney’s Government.
“I think across Scotland people are entitled to ask, ‘Where has the money gone John?,” he said.
“The election in May is not an election about who is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – it is about who should be first minister of Scotland.
“The question is what is in the best interests of Scotland? I think the best interests of Scotland is change with Anas Sarwar.”
While visiting energy firm SSE, the Prime Minister also hit out at the SNP over its “ideological” opposition to new nuclear power stations in Scotland.
He said a new nuclear project will bring jobs and investment to Wales, and that there could be similar benefits for Scotland if Mr Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, becomes the country’s next first minister.
The Prime Minister said: “We’ve got a wall of money we want to invest in Scotland, the SNP are saying ‘no we don’t want that’.
“If there’s a Labour government in Scotland we will be back the day after the election and we will make sure that investment is translated into good jobs in Scotland.”
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