Sir Keir Starmer will make helping Anas Sarwar’s campaign to become Scotland’s next first minister one of his top priorities.
The prime minister and Scottish Labour leader spoke minutes after an exit poll showed that Labour was on course to record its best result north of the border since 2010.
Labour now has the largest number of Scottish MPs with 37 seats, having won just one in 2019.
A source close to Sarwar said that he and Starmer agreed that the victory over the SNP was “the start of the second stage of the process” for the party in Scotland, which they hope will result in the end of the Nationalist government at Holyrood.
Key to this will be Ian Murray, who was appointed Scottish secretary, a role that will be given a significant enhancement through powers to distribute levelling-up funding.
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Murray will be able to distribute at least £150 million a year through the Scotland Office to infrastructure and anti-poverty projects.
He said he would make the department “a strong voice for Scotland within the UK government” and use the new funding to unlock “opportunities across the country, especially in our most deprived communities”.
In a sign of a shift in the relationship between the UK and Scottish governments with Starmer in No 10, senior SNP and Labour figures pledged to work together more constructively.
“I am determined to reset the relationship between the UK and Scottish governments,” Murray said. “Focusing on co-operation and joint working will mean we can deliver better results for people in Scotland.”
However, both parties have one eye on the 2026 Holyrood election. Labour believes it can use the momentum generated by Thursday’s victory to seize power back in Edinburgh for the first time since 2007.
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Asked if the potential for a midterm dip in Labour’s fortunes at a UK level could harm his chances of becoming first minister, Sarwar said: “Let’s not pretend and let the SNP off the hook that somehow any Scottish parliament election is somehow some kind of referendum on a UK government.
“Yes, a UK Labour government delivering for Scotland but it’s also about having a Scottish government that is delivering for the people of Scotland.”
Speaking while surrounded by Scottish Labour’s new MPs in Glasgow on Friday morning, Sarwar said: “People across our country will be waking up to the news that after 14 years of Conservative government, after 14 years of chaos and division, that has now come to an end and Scotland and the UK has elected a Labour government.
“I want to say thank you to the people of Scotland. You have put your faith and trust in us and we will work day and night to build on that.”
The first Scottish election result, from Kilmarnock & Loudon, set the tone for the night as Labour came from third to first to beat the SNP in a seat that was 28th on its list of target constituencies. Swings of about 20 points towards Labour continued as more candidates leapt to victory from third place.
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The Labour surge led to the return of Douglas Alexander, a former cabinet minister, and the election of potential future ministers including Blair McDougall, who ran the Better Together pro-union campaign, and Kirsty McNeill, a charity boss.
Reflecting on the election result, Professor Sir John Curtice, the polling expert, said: “Actually but for the rise of the Labour Party in Scotland which has been truly spectacular we would be reporting that basically Labour’s vote has not changed from what it was in 2019, in Wales it is actually down and in England it has barely changed.”
