
Despite the double whammy of electoral woes facing Scottish Labour, with the UK Labour Government recently overtaken in the opinion polls by the gutter politics of the Reform party and the news that the Scottish party’s support had halved since the election, somewhat surprisingly, the Scottish Labour Conference was brimming with excitement. Nowhere was this clearer than In Anas Sarwar’s speech on Friday, with his limitless optimism on full display as he declared ‘We will defy the odds again…we will win in 2026,’ to rapturous applause.