Scottish Labour’s collapse exposes Sarwar’s thin base
Anas Sarwar blames a UK-wide anti-Labour wave, but the result shows Scottish Labour still has no answer to the SNP or Reform.
Anas Sarwar’s problem is leverage: he has almost none. Scottish Labour returned just 17 MSPs in the Holyrood election — its worst result since devolution — and tied Reform UK for second place behind the SNP, according to the BBC’s postmortem on the campaign. Sarwar is trying to frame the defeat as a product of a “national wave” against Labour across the UK, but that explanation is also an admission that his pitch in Scotland failed to travel beyond a weak Westminster brand. 
What went wrong for Scottish Labour? 
Sarwar says he will 'absolutely' stay on as Labour leader
The campaign misread the system
The central mistake was tactical. Labour bet on constituency-by-constituency head-to-heads with the SNP, trying to recreate its surprise Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election win across more than 30 central-belt seats. That worked once because it was intensely resourced; it did not work as a national strategy while Labour was simultaneously fighting elsewhere in the UK, and the party “lost almost all” of those constituency contests, the BBC reported. What went wrong for Scottish Labour? 
Anas Sarwar says ‘national wave’ against Labour responsible for Holyrood result
More damaging still, Labour appears to have underweighted the regional “peach ballot” that can rescue parties in Scotland’s mixed electoral system. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pushed hard for list votes; Labour instead concentrated on winning constituencies and missed a chance to pad its seat total, even if only marginally. In a parliament where every list seat matters, that is not a secondary error. It is the difference between being a relevant opposition and being shoved into the same bracket as a newcomer like Reform. For the wider UK party-system shift, see 
Global Politics. What went wrong for Scottish Labour? Anas Sarwar says ‘national wave’ against Labour responsible for Holyrood result
Reform and Starmer made the damage worse
The other force here is not just the SNP, but Reform UK. The BBC’s wider election coverage says the SNP benefited from Reform’s rise because it fragmented the pro-union vote, while The Guardian noted that Reform’s 17 seats in Scotland turned the election into a three-way contest for the anti-SNP vote. That matters because Labour no longer owns the “safe opposition” lane it once did; it is now squeezed from both sides by a nationalist incumbent and a populist challenger. Historic win for SNP but change and challenges ahead at Holyrood 
Starmer’s unpopularity was insurmountable for Scottish Labour – and a boon for Reform
That squeeze is also personal. Sarwar has already said Sir Keir Starmer should resign, and he is now defending a campaign conducted in Starmer’s shadow. The BBC reports that Scottish Labour figures complained of anger and exasperation inside the party, while one MSP said voters’ dislike of the prime minister was “visceral.” That is the real constraint: Scottish Labour cannot credibly present itself as a fresh alternative to the SNP while the UK party leadership remains a liability on the doorstep. Sarwar says he will 'absolutely' stay on as Labour leader What went wrong for Scottish Labour?
What to watch next
Sarwar says he will stay on “for the foreseeable future,” but he has not committed to leading the party into the next Holyrood election. The immediate test is whether he can stop the blame from turning into an internal leadership move against him — and whether Starmer’s promised reset speech on Monday does anything to blunt the UK-wide drag. If it does not, Scottish Labour’s next fight will be less about beating the SNP than surviving Reform’s advance. Sarwar says he will 'absolutely' stay on as Labour leader Starmer under pressure, as Labour suffers heavy election losses
