Anas Sarwar reveals his 'personal pain' at calling for Starmer resignation

Earlier this year the Scottish Labour leader shocked politics when he called for Sir Keir Starmer to step down after he appointed Lord Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to the US despite his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

For several weeks, Mr Sarwar has questioned First Minister John Swinney on the scandal at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, something he has previously dubbed the biggest scandal in the history of devolution.

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This comes after it was revealed the hospital opened too early despite safety concerns, and linked child deaths at the super-hospital to water contamination.

Mr Sarwar said it was an “eye opener” when journalists in the Scottish Parliament wanted to talk to him about the Mandelson scandal rather than his work on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

Speaking to BBC Scotcast, Mr Sarwar said: “For a number of weeks I had been calling out some of the most difficult situations that many families have ever faced at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

“This was a really significant story in my view which cuts to the reason we need a change of government.

“When you leave the parliament chamber you have the press pack outside for the doorstep, and every single question I got was about Mandelson and Epstein, and to be honest that was a real eye-opener.

“I was talking about one of the most significant campaigns I’ve been involved in, and these were the questions I was getting.

“It made me think about the situation.”

Mr Sarwar told the podcast he was still unsure on what he should do when he went to bed the night before, but made up his mind after sleeping on it.

The Glasgow MSP said he spoke to “very few people” about his decision prior to the bombshell press conference, but denied there was a “coup plot”.

He added: “I knew in my heart that I’m the person standing in front of people asking them to put their trust in me, asking them to make me the next First Minister.

“I’ve got to persuade the people so I had to be true to myself.”

He said he spoke to Sir Keir before he publicly made the announcement and again a few days later, but admitted the conversations were “difficult”. Mr Sarwar also said his team and the Prime Minister’s teams are still in regular contact with one another.

Mr Sarwar said: “There’s a deeper part when you take away the politics.

“I think there will be very few people in politics that had as close a relationship as I had with him, so it was personally difficult.

“I found the personal more difficult than the politics because I genuinely like him as a human being. He has integrity and wants what’s best for the country, but I am the one facing the electorate.

“I would love to maintain a good personal relationship with him, but as you can imagine that’s difficult.

“I think it’s safe to say that saying what I said will have hurt him on personal level and I have found personal pain because of the personal relationship we had.

“But he is a man of decency and integrity and I do like him as a human being, so I'm sure we will have conversations in the future.”