SCOTTISH Labour leader Anas Sarwar was described as “a chancer” today after the news that he will step down to take up a junior ministerial post in an ermine robe.

Speculation had grown over Mr Sarwar’s future after he led the party to a second successive record defeat in May’s Holyrood elections, securing 17 seats to the SNP’s 58.

A review into the disaster, led by its architect deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie, is expected to report in the autumn.

The finger of blame is widely expected to be pointed at Sir Keir Starmer, leading to speculation that Mr Sarwar may linger, a risk senior Labour sources have suggested may have motivated the Prime Minister to “make him an offer he can’t refuse” — a peerage and a plum international job at the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. 

Recalling Mr Sarwar’s 2022 proclamation that “unacceptable” to have “unelected representatives wielding such power,” Scottish Green co-leader Gillian Mackay said: “Anas Sarwar is a chancer.

“He has gone from promising to scrap the House of Lords to taking a seat in it. 

“The hypocrisy is breathtaking.”

Turning the call of hypocrisy on the Prime Minister, First Minister John Swinney said: “It just illustrates the fact that politicians say one thing one minute and then do another thing the next minute, when it suits them.

“That, I thought, was what Andy Burnham was trying to address and to solve.

“Instead, Andy Burnham has exacerbated that.”

His SNP Holyrood colleague George Adam meanwhile branded Mr Sarwar “a rich boy skimming off the public purse,” urging him donate his ministerial salary to charity.

Welcoming Mr Sarwar’s departure, if not his destination, a “relieved” Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth Brian Leishman told the Star: “His tenure will be described as a failure. 

“I think we’ve got to look at the future of the deputy leader Jackie Baillie also.

“Jackie has been instrumental in all the decision-making for quite some time, and we saw the folly of trying to launch ‘Anas for Bute House’ as some sort of presidential campaign.”

Turning to the future, he added: “What we’ve got to do is we’ve got to get away from the politics of personality.

“We’ve got to present a transformative and radical and bold policy platform that really will meaningfully impact and improve the lives of working-class people in Scotland.”