{"id":699296,"date":"2026-01-16T06:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T06:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/699296\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T06:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T06:25:18","slug":"holyrood-poll-is-about-who-governs-scotland-not-my-performance-keir-starmer-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/699296\/","title":{"rendered":"Holyrood poll is about who governs Scotland, not my performance \u2013 Keir Starmer \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to say if he is putting Scots off voting Labour \u2013 or if his job could be on the line if his party performs badly in May\u2019s Holyrood election.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister travelled north on Thursday ahead of the Scottish election, with Reform UK\u2019s Nigel Farage and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also in Scotland.<\/p>\n

The visits came as the first opinion poll of 2026 in Scotland showed Labour fighting with Reform for second place in the Holyrood election \u2013 with John Swinney\u2019s SNP on course for a fifth consecutive victory.<\/p>\n

Asked directly by the media if his position could be at risk if Labour struggles in May, Sir Keir would only say that his job \u201cis to deliver for Scotland\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Edinburgh’s<\/a>\"William<\/a><\/p>\n

Challenged on whether he is putting voters in Scotland off supporting Labour, the Prime Minister again said: \u201cMy job is to deliver for Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on a visit to Perth, he made clear May\u2019s election is not about his performance or his Government at Westminster, adding it is to decide \u201cwho governs Scotland\u201d.<\/p>\n

Labour is desperate to oust the SNP \u2013 which has been in charge at Holyrood since 2007 \u2013 from power, with Sir Keir saying after 19 years of SNP in government, Scotland has a \u201chealth service where there\u2019s too many people on the waiting list\u201d, and \u201ceducation and public services which are on their knees\u201d.<\/p>\n

The UK Government awarded \u201crecords amount of money\u201d to Scotland at its last budget, Sir Keir added, questioning what it has been spent on by Mr Swinney\u2019s Government.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Prime Minister, together with Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander (left) and Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband (right) visited energy firm SSE\u2019s National Training Centre in Perth. (Jane Barlow\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cI think across Scotland people are entitled to ask, \u2018Where has the money gone John?,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe election in May is not an election about who is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom \u2013 it is about who should be first minister of Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is what is in the best interests of Scotland? I think the best interests of Scotland is change with Anas Sarwar.\u201d<\/p>\n

While visiting energy firm SSE, the Prime Minister also hit out at the SNP over its \u201cideological\u201d opposition to new nuclear power stations in Scotland.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s next first minister.<\/p>\n

\"ReformReform UK leader Nigel Farage declared the next Holyrood election to be a two horse race between his party and the SNP. (Andrew Milligan\/PA) <\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got a wall of money we want to invest in Scotland, the SNP are saying \u2018no we don\u2019t want that\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reform\u2019s Mr Farage, meanwhile, has insisted May\u2019s election will be a \u201ctwo-horse race\u201d between his party and the SNP.<\/p>\n

With support for Reform, which currently has just one MSP but has surged in the polls, Mr Farage added: \u201cI think we could even surprise ourselves with just how many votes we manage to garner in this election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking after announcing former Tory minister Malcolm Offord as Reform\u2019s Scottish leader, Mr Farage continued: \u201cA huge chunk of the Scottish electorate are looking for something different, they\u2019re tired of the decline this country has seen under SNP Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Reform would be \u201cseen as the main opposition\u201d to the SNP because Labour and the Conservative have failed to challenge \u201cmuch of the damage the SNP have done for Scotland\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Badenoch meanwhile declared she was \u201cnot worried\u201d about Reform\u2019s new Scottish leader and how he will perform in the May election.<\/p>\n

She insisted Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay is \u201ca man of integrity who fights for other people\u201d while she said: \u201cMalcolm Offord is all about himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd given the fact that he\u2019s never delivered a single leaflet. I\u2019m not worried about what he\u2019s going to be doing in the Scottish elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tory leader continued: \u201cWhat I want people to know is what Russell will be doing. He\u2019s going to be working for a stronger economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are about getting our country working again, and the Conservative Party is the only credible party with ideas and a strong team to deliver that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer has refused to say if he is putting Scots off voting Labour \u2013 or if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,527,1102,33,4884,26655,210591,1198,384,285,386,712,11312,18695,520,16,10788,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-699296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-conservative-party","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-elections","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-holyrood","14":"tag-holyrood-election","15":"tag-kemi-badenoch","16":"tag-nigel-farage","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-reform-uk","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-scottish-government","21":"tag-scottish-labour","22":"tag-sir-keir-starmer","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-uk-government","25":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115903353798494343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}