‘Scotland 2026: Labour must frame the choice as between change and another decade of the SNP’

The 2026 election campaign in Scotland is well and truly under way. Whilst normal people hunker down at home awaiting better weather and lighter evenings, Scottish Labour campaigners are braving icy pavements and dark nights to chap doors.

Whilst the welcome we receive is mostly warm, folk do seem somewhat surprised to see us as their thoughts have not yet turned to the next election.

2024 is still fresh in people’s minds and the challenge for Scottish Labour is to ensure that voters see this election as a verdict on the government in Holyrood and their dismal record –20 years in the making – as opposed to an interim performance review for Starmer. As Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar, set out in his New Year’s speech “This is not about choosing a government elsewhere but deciding who leads Scotland and the direction the country takes”

Anas’s speech in Edinburgh launched the Scottish Labour campaign and set out the real choice voters will be making in May.  There are only two options at the coming election – another decade of the SNP with John Swinney, or change with Scottish Labour and Anas Sarwar as First Minister. Not who is in Number 10 but who leads Scotland for the next five years. 

READ MORE: ‘Scotland’s choice’: Anas Sarwar launches Scottish Labour’s Holyrood campaign in New Year speech

Scottish Labour have promised ‘the largest and most effective ground campaign of any party’ thanks to a £1 million election fund. Anas set out an ambition to reach one million voters a week via social media and speak to five million voters before May 7th. The byelection in Hamilton proved that Scottish Labour now have an unrivalled campaign machine combining old school ‘boots on the ground’ with cutting edge data collection alongside original and compelling digital content. 

The Hamilton result may have been a shock to the pollsters and media commentators, but it came as no surprise to Scottish Labour as they had spoken to unprecedented number of voters prior to election day which gave them a more accurate picture of the ground than the broader national picture implied.

Despite beating the SNP in Hamilton and seeing off the threat of Reform, Scottish Labour starts this year already written off by many commentators and trailing third in the polls. The anger and frustration on the doorstep is real and people are impatient for change. Reform’s entry into Scotland demonstrates a shift here. For many years immigration was notably absent from Scottish voters’ top five concerns. However,  whilst the NHS and the cost of living remain  the biggest concerns for voters in May 2025 immigration entered the top five concerns for the first time. 16% of Scots named it as a top issue.

2026 will be a battle of political framing and how best to express the very real frustration Scottish feel, who they blame for it and who offers the best alternative in Holyrood. John Swinney, tired and out of time, will tell voters to reject Westminster; Farage wants to reject the entire system.Scottish Labour want to make the country work better and build a better future for Scotland.

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This is a profound choice about Scotland’s future. The candidates standing for Scottish Labour are part of a devolution generation, for me the very first vote I remember casting was a vote for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, whilst others would struggle to remember a time before devolution. 

We are all united in our ambition for Scotland and our belief that Scotland has all the powers and talent in its own parliament and people required to make our country a better place. Reform may peddle a narrative of an out of touch political elite but we are actuallypart of the communities we seek to represent and we access the services everyone else does, we are just as “scunnered” as the people we speak to on the doorstep. We have children in failing schools, elderly parents on waiting lists or indeed we are working in the public sector ourselves. We see the failure and decline caused by the SNP all around us.

We believe in devolution and want to use the powers of that parliament to change Scotland for the better. So the idea of five more years of stagnation and blaming Westminster is unthinkable. The SNP’s disinterest in delivery has real consequences for the people of Scotland.

After almost 20 years in office, the SNP have had their chance. On the issues that matter most to people – schools, the NHS, childcare, housing, and local services, things have gone backwards. Nearly 850,000 Scots are waiting for NHS tests and treatment. One in six young people are out of work or education. For too many people, opportunity feels more limited after 20 years of the SNP.

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If we are to win in 2026 we must move the narrative away from a commentary on Keir Starmer and the UK Labour Party and on to what the choice is in May 2026. The choice of a third decade of the SNP or a new generation with new ideas and with a vision for a modern Scotland.

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