Anas Sarwar takes his seat in House of Lords... despite having called for it to be abolished!

Former Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has taken his seat in the House of Lords – despite previously calling for it to be abolished.Lord Sarwar, who led the Scottish party for more than five years, wore the traditional scarlet robes for the ceremony in the upper chamber.He was supported by two former Scottish Labour MPs, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke and Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, as he swore allegiance to the King.Making his maiden speech in a later debate, Lord Sarwar thanked his family and the ‘people of Glasgow’ for getting him where he is.Watched by his family, including his father and former MP Mohammed Sarwar, from the gallery, he said he had played his part ‘in helping the Labour Party succeed at the last general election’ and that he would play his part in helping Andy Burnham succeed as Prime Minister.He also said there was a ‘bigger fight’ for ‘the heart and soul of our nation’.Expanding on this, he said: ‘It’s about who we are as a people and who we are as a country, and for me, it actually goes beyond the usual mainstream political divide.‘And that is: “who are we as a country? Do we continue to look out for and love our neighbour, or do we treat them with suspicion?” Former Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar takes his seat in the House of Lords ‘Are we a country that succumbs to the politics of division and hate, or are we going to make sure that we have a country and a politics that believes in unity and hope?’He also said there had been successes in the first two years of the Labour Government, but the party did not live up to voters’ expectations, and he remains ‘heart-sore’ at the outcome of the Scottish election this year.His new peerage also comes after Mr Sarwar used a speech at Westminster in 2022 to call for the House of Lords to be abolished.Addressing this apparent contradiction, he said he did so ‘questioning the principle, not the purpose or the people’, and that he continues to support a ‘more democratic and more representative upper chamber’.Mr Sarwar, 43, faced a backlash after he walked away from his job as leader of Scottish Labour in July to take up a junior role as trade minister in the UK Government.Labour activists raised concerns that it would give the impression that the lowly role in Mr Burnham’s government was a better position than heading up the party in Scotland.Duncan Hothersall, an activist who edits the Labour Hame website, previously told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘The bigger issue is the message it is sending that essentially the first notable thing Andy Burnham has done in terms of Scotland is to effectively put a junior minister of trade as a promotion from the position of leader of Scottish Labour. It’s a terrible, terrible bit of optics.’ Lord Sarwar was made a peer shortly after Andy Burnham entered No 10Mr Sarwar has also faced questions about when he was promised a role by Mr Burnham.He was among the first Labour politicians to demand Sir Keir Starmer resign as prime minister in a botched move in February, which initially saw the Cabinet rally around, giving Sir Keir a temporary stay of execution.Following Sir Keir’s departure, Lord Sarwar was made a peer shortly after Andy Burnham entered No10.Lord Sarwar led Scottish Labour from 2021, a role he described earlier this year as the ‘hardest’ in politics.His leadership saw the party collapse to 17 seats in Holyrood in May.First Minister of Scotland John Swinney previously accused Lord Sarwar of ‘hypocrisy’ and an ‘appalling level of judgment’ for taking the peerage.‘He said before the (Holyrood) election he had absolutely no interest in going to the House of Lords, he only wanted to be first minister of Scotland.‘Then, after the election, Anas Sarwar has accepted a place in the House of Lords – a body, by the way, he wants to abolish.’The result of the race to replace Lord Sarwar as Scottish Labour leader is expected to be announced on September 19, with Joe Fagan and Michael Marra in the running.