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PoliticsUK PM Burnham appoints Anas Sarwar, who urged Starmer to quit, as peer and minister
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New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has appointed Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to the House of Lords and as a minister in the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, despite Sarwar having called on former PM Keir Starmer to resign earlier this year. Sarwar broke ranks in February over the Peter Mandelson scandal, urging Starmer to step down. The move comes after Sarwar led Scottish Labour to a poor result in the May Holyrood elections, where the party fell to 17 MSPs. Burnham, who recently took over as PM, had pledged to end factionalism but has removed several Starmer loyalists from his cabinet while promoting his own allies. The appointment signals a shift in Labour's internal power dynamics under Burnham's leadership.
Source report
Andy Burnham has awarded a peerage and a government role to a senior Labour figure who previously called on Keir Starmer to resign.
In a major political shock, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is leaving the Scottish Parliament to enter the House of Lords. He will also take up a ministerial position at the newly restructured Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.
Sarwar's elevation comes despite leading Scottish Labour to a disappointing result in the Holyrood elections on May 7. The party finished a distant second to the SNP, with their number of MSPs falling from 20 to just 17.
The Mandelson Scandal
Sarwar broke ranks in February to call on Starmer to resign as prime minister in the wake of the Peter Mandelson scandal. Mandelson, the disgraced former UK ambassador to Washington, is accused of passing market-sensitive information to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein while serving as business secretary between 2008 and 2010.
Speaking at the time, Sarwar said:
"The distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change. It is so obvious that we desperately need change in Scotland and in three months time the opportunity to get rid of a failing SNP government is one that is too important to be missed. We cannot allow the failures at the heart of Downing Street to mean the failures continue here in Scotland, because the election in May is not without consequence for the lives of Scots."
Despite speculation that cabinet ministers were set to quit, Starmer managed to see off the rebellion and remained in office until he stood down last week.
Burnham's New Approach
Burnham last week insisted he would end "factionalism" in the Labour Party. However, on Monday he removed a number of Starmer loyalists while appointing several of his own supporters to his cabinet within hours of taking over as prime minister.
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Source
HuffPost UK - Athena2 - All Entries (Public)Western
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UK PM Burnham Appoints Sarwar to Lords Amid Labour Backlash