Nicola Sturgeon is an “us versus them” politician in the same mould as Boris Johnson, Scottish Labour’s leader has claimed.
Anas Sarwar called on Labour Party members across Britain to unite to “defeat the us versus them” politics on show in London and Edinburgh.
Mr Sarwar also hit out at the prime minister for his use of racist language in the past and claimed his government’s culture war would “leave deep scars in our country”.
The Scottish Labour leader made the comments after meeting with senior figures in the UK party in London today.
He said: “Boris Johnson is an us versus them politician, in Scotland we have an us versus them first minister.
“All of us need to defeat the us versus them, the Labour Party needs to be the all of us about how we together pull our country together to come through COVID, build a recovery that works for everyone, challenges inbuilt structural inequalities, tackles poverty and makes it a country where everyone has an equal stake.
“That is how Labour defeats the Tories, and also Labour defeats the SNP in Scotland.
“That requires us to do better in Scotland, but it also means the UK Labour Party doing better as well, recognising that is the way forward for us.”
Asked about the racial abuse suffered by England’s footballers and whether Mr Johnson bore any culpability, Mr Sarwar said: “He has certainly used language that is designed to divide and would be regarded as being racist.
“There is no denying that he’s used language like that, he’s used language in the past that’s been racist, he has used language in the past that’s been Islamophobic.
“This prime minister needs to understand, his party needs to understand, that words have consequences and actions have consequences.
“This attempt to do culture wars, to try and pit one community against another, to try and get electoral success is one that might work in the short term but long term its leaving deep scars in our country.”
He added: “You cannot save the Union with posturing and pursuing every fight in the culture war.
“Dividing our country for political gain is Boris Johnson’s bread and butter – but it won’t unite every part of the UK, and it won’t bring prosperity to a single part of this country.”
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