Anas Sarwar resigned as Scottish Labour leader in July 2026. Prime Minister Andy Burnham plans to give him a ministerial job at the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST) and make him a member of the House of Lords The Guardian. This happened less than three months after Scottish Labour's election campaign, in which the party got its worst results ever in the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood).

Sarwar leaving the Scottish Parliament has set off a race to replace him. Only 17 Labour MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament) can run for the job, though party rules also allow a UK MP or a Lord to hold the role. Monica Lennon, who will take Sarwar's seat, and Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, are both seen as possible contenders. Scottish Labour politicians and staff were reportedly surprised by the resignation, and people who know Sarwar do not believe the move was planned.

The department Sarwar is joining, DBIST, handles trade, industry, and science policy for the whole UK. But Scotland's government in Edinburgh also has powers over some of these areas, and arguments over who controls what are common. Critics in Scotland have already said that Burnham's broader offer on devolution (the system where Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland run some of their own affairs) does not go far enough.

Sarwar's recent past helps explain how he got here. In February 2026, he became the first senior Labour figure to call for Sir Keir Starmer to resign BBC News. A Wakefield Council meeting document dated March 18, 2026, references Sarwar publicly questioning his confidence in the Prime Minister during a press conference. His willingness to break ranks with the then-leader set him apart within the parliamentary party at a moment of deep internal crisis, and it is this profile that Burnham now appears to be drawing into government.

Scotland's opposition parties reacted quickly and sharply. Scottish Green co-leader Gillian Mackay called Sarwar a "chancer" and accused him of hypocrisy for accepting a peerage after promising to scrap the House of Lords. The charge is grounded in Sarwar's own record: in 2022, he called the Lords "unacceptable." The SNP went further, calling for Sarwar to donate his new ministerial salary to charity and accusing him of lying to the electorate. SNP MSP George Adam said Labour and Sarwar "repeatedly denied and lied to the people of Scotland" about his intentions regarding the Lords.

The broader context here is that the hypocrisy charge has real political force. Sarwar positioned himself as a reformer who wanted to change the constitution, including getting rid of the House of Lords altogether. Accepting a peerage to take up a government job creates an obvious tension between what he said he believed and how the system actually works. In the UK, ministerial roles in the Lords are a normal part of how governments are built. Whether voters see this as pragmatic engagement with the system as it exists, or as a straightforward betrayal of a promise, will shape the political damage.

For Scottish Labour, the timing makes things harder. The party is coming off its worst-ever Holyrood result and now faces a leadership contest with a small field and a thin presence in parliament. The next leader will need to rebuild trust with Scottish voters while managing the relationship with a Burnham government whose devolution plans are already being criticized in Scotland.

For Burnham, the calculation is different. Bringing Sarwar into DBIST adds a politician with executive experience and a profile in Scottish politics to a department handling trade and industrial policy at a moment when relations with the devolved nations are under strain. The appointment signals Burnham's willingness to bring former critics into his governing project. It also extends a pattern in which Labour figures who moved early against Starmer are finding a place in the successor administration.

The leadership contest to replace Sarwar will be the immediate test. With 17 MSPs as the core candidate pool, the party's options are structurally limited, and the result will shape how Scottish Labour positions itself both at Holyrood and in relation to the UK government.