Anas Sarwar

For the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, Sarwar was selected to stand as the number one regional list candidate for the Glasgow region.[8] He was a member of Labour's Scottish Policy Forum which was responsible for drawing-up the Scottish Labour Party manifesto for that election. His attempt to enter Holyrood failed at the election when Labour lost control of the Scottish Parliament for the first time.[9]

Sarwar was elected at the 2010 general election as MP for Glasgow Central, succeeding his father Mohammad Sarwar; who was the first-ever Muslim MP in the UK and increasing the previously held majority.[8] He was elected by colleagues to serve on the International Development Select Committee. His parliamentary interests included foreign policy and international development, with specific areas of concern being Palestine and Kashmir.[10] He was also co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on anti-corruption and was a member of the Welfare Reform Bill Committee.[11] In January 2013, Sarwar was awarded the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards.[12]

In 2013, Sarwar took a strong line in attacking both the "Bedroom Tax" and the Scottish Government for its failure to mitigate its worst effects. During a vote on its repeal, Sarwar was in Pakistan, giving a speech to students at Hajvery University, and so was paired off with a Conservative MP, cancelling out the two votes. He was criticised for his absence by the SNP.[13][14]

In 2014, Sarwar came under criticism for choosing to send his son to Hutchesons' Grammar School, an independent school and the same school that he himself attended, rather than a state school. MSP John Wilson stated: "Anas Sarwar once again highlights the hypocrisy of the Labour Party – talking of social justice and defending public services while sending his own child to a private school."[15]

From 5 November 2014 until 8 May 2015, Sarwar was Labour's Shadow Minister for International Development.[16] In January 2015, he was awarded the Spirit of Britain award at that year's British Muslim Awards.[17] At the 2015 general election, he lost his Glasgow Central seat to Alison Thewliss of the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Margaret Curran, Sarwar, Johann Lamont and Gordon Brown at the launch of United with Labour

In December 2011, Sarwar was elected Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party receiving 51.10% of the vote.[18] In 2012, he was appointed to co-ordinate the Scottish Labour Party's 2014 Scottish independence referendum campaign.[19] The campaign, alongside Better Together, was ultimately successful, with Scotland voting 55% to 45% to remain in the United Kingdom. However, Scottish Labour were all but wiped out in an SNP landslide victory at the 2015 general election. Following the resignation of Johann Lamont on 25 October 2014, Sarwar became acting Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, until a new leader was elected. On 30 October he resigned as deputy leader at a Labour Party dinner in Glasgow.

Official parliamentary portrait, 2016

Sarwar was elected as an additional member in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election for the Glasgow region. In 2016, he was made Scottish Labour Spokesperson for Health and Sport. In September 2017, he announced he would run for the Scottish Labour Party leadership following the resignation of Kezia Dugdale.[20] He eventually lost to his opponent, Richard Leonard. On 4 October 2018, he was sacked from his position as Health and Sport Spokesperson, stating he had only learnt of the sacking on Twitter.[21]

During the 2017 leadership election, Rutherglen councillor Davie McLachlan allegedly said "Scotland wouldn’t vote for a brown Muslim Paki". In April 2019, Sarwar's case against McLachlan was due to be heard by the National Constitutional Committee but was dropped on a technicality, as Sarwar had not given his case within a narrow timescale which had been given out at short notice. Richard Leonard acknowledged the process was flawed and the committee would need to be reformed to avoid similar incidents.[22]

In November 2019, Sarwar was given access to a leaked report from 2015 which had considered infection controls at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to be at "high risk". 10-year-old patient Milly Main died in the hospital in 2017 from a water infection, while she was there to recover from leukaemia. Sarwar raised the leaked report's findings in a Scottish Parliament debate in which he criticised NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for not closing certain hospital wards despite the report's findings. A constituent of his, he requested on behalf on Main's mother a response from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.[23]

In November 2020, Sarwar was made Scottish Labour Spokesperson for the Constitution.[24] Following the resignation of Richard Leonard in 2021, he again put himself forward for the leadership, competing against Monica Lennon.[25]