Exclusive:Scottish Labour MPs want Anas Sarwar to stay 'until general election'
Douglas McAllister said Mr Sarwar would give Scots MPs “the best chance of retaining their seats”, while Richard Baker said he has his “support”.
Labour MPs have urged Anas Sarwar to continue leading the Scottish party until the next general election.
Douglas McAllister has said that the Scottish Labour leader and his deputy Jackie Baillie staying in post would give Scots MPs “the best chance of retaining their seats”.
Richard Baker - chair of the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party - said Mr Sarwar and Ms Baillie “have my support” and Graeme Downie said the pair “should stay”.
A fourth MP said the pair should stay “for the moment” but that they could not continue long-term.
Alloa and Grangemouth’s Brian Leishman is so far the only Scottish MP to have urged both Mr Sarwar and Ms Baillie to stand down
Mr Sarwar has vowed that he will “absolutely” continue as Scottish Labour leader despite the party slumping to its worst ever Holyrood result.
But he dodged questions over whether he would lead the party into the next election.
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West Dunbartonshire MP Mr McAllister said that it the speculation around Sir Keir Starmer’s future meant Mr Sarwar should remain as leader..
He said: "All we're going to be talking about, it may be immediately, or it may be over the next year, is who's leading the Labour Party across the UK.
"We really don't need the distraction of having that upheaval in Scotland as well.
"What I don't want is a leadership and a deputy leadership contest and all sorts of factions and sides.
“It wouldn't be helpful if we've got that going on in Scotland and that going on at Westminster at the same time."
He continued: "For that reason, we need stability. Anas and Jackie have to stay where they are.
"Anas is an extremely talented campaigner, an extremely talented leader of Scottish Labour, probably the best in his generation.
"He is an asset to us. Jackie's got that experience. Why would we want them to step aside?
"I'm not suggesting that they lead us into Scottish Parliament election in five years time.
"The best chance that Scottish Labour MPs have of retaining their seats and being re-elected whenever we have the Westminster general election is with an Anas and Jackie leading that campaign."
Labour won just 17 MSPs in Thursday’s election, coming in joint second with Reform UK. It was the party’s worst ever result, taking just 19.2 per cent of the constituency vote and 16 per cent of the list vote.
It was also despite the SNP’s vote share being well down.
Glenrothes and Mid Fife MP Mr Baker - whose wife Claire Baker was elected as a list MSP for the fifth time - did not place the blame for the poor result on Mr Sarwar.
He said: “[Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie] have my support.
“The results across the UK show how tough the challenge was in Scotland, Anas led us to 37 MPs, won the leader debates in the election, but did not get the result he and our great candidates deserved.”
Dunfermline and Dollar MP Graeme Downie said: “They should stay.”
A fourth MP said Mr Sarwar and Ms Baillie had to take some of the blame, but that they should stay for now.
They said: “Obviously [they can’t continue] in the long term, it was a disastrous result.
“But for the moment we need them to stay.”
Another MP said that Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander - who ran the campaign alongside Ms Baillie - should also take some responsibility for the poor campaign.
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