Anas Sarwar

Anas Sarwar (born 14 March 1983) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021.

Anas Sarwar was born on 14 March 1983 in Glasgow, the youngest of four children.

His parents were Perveen Sarwar and Mohammad Sarwar, both Pakistani Muslims.

His father was elected as the Labour MP for Glasgow Govan in 1997, becoming the UK's first Muslim MP.

In that year, Sarwar received an envelope containing a threat against his mother.

Sarwar served as an executive member of Scottish Young Labour and later joined the Co-operative Party, a party which stands candidates jointly with the Labour Party, as well as the Fabian Society, the trades unions Unite and Community, and the pressure group Progress.

He attended Hutchesons' Grammar School, a private school in Glasgow, before completing a degree in general dentistry at the University of Glasgow from 2000 to 2005.

While a student, he joined marches against the Iraq War.

He worked as an NHS dentist in Paisley from 2005 until 2009.

Sarwar began campaigning for the Labour Party as a child of "nine or ten" and joined the party at the age of fifteen or sixteen.

Sarwar was selected as the lead regional list candidate for the Glasgow Scottish Parliament electoral region for the 2007 election.

He was a member of Labour's Scottish Policy Forum which was responsible for drawing-up the Scottish Labour Party manifesto for that election.

He was not elected, later saying that standing as a list candidate had been a chance "to prove himself", and that he had had "no chance" of success given his party's success in winning constituency seats under the additional member system.

Sarwar's father announced his retirement as the MP for Glasgow Central in February 2007.

He worked in Paisley as a dentist until being elected as Member of Parliament for Glasgow Central at the 2010 general election when he succeeded his retiring father, Mohammad Sarwar.

Later that year, Sarwar was selected as the Labour candidate for the seat at the 2010 United Kingdom general election.

Despite Labour's loss of power at that general election, Anas Sarwar emphasised his independence and differentiated himself from his father's politics.

The Guardian described him as positioning himself on the "moderate left" of the Labour Party, supporting electoral reform for the House of Commons, reforming the House of Lords to have a majority of elected seats but with some seats remaining appointed, and reducing the scale of the UK's nuclear deterrant.

He opposed privatisation of the NHS but supported the use of private finance initiative schemes to build schools.

He won the election with 52.0% of the vote, an increase on the previous vote share and majority.

He was elected by colleagues to serve on the International Development Select Committee.

He said that his parliamentary interests included foreign policy and international development, and that he wanted to "use his parliamentary platform to make a difference on" conflicts in Palestine and Kashmir.

During his time in the House of Commons, he served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014.

He served as vice-chair of Progress in 2011.

In December 2011, Sarwar was elected as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party receiving 51.1% of the vote.

In 2012, he was appointed to co-ordinate Scottish Labour's 2014 Scottish independence referendum campaign.

In January 2013, he was awarded the Politician of The Year Award at the British Muslim Awards.

In 2013, Sarwar took a strong line in attacking both the "bedroom tax" and accused the Scottish Government of failure to mitigate its worst effects.

During a vote on its repeal, Sarwar was overseas in Pakistan, giving a speech to students at Hajvery University, and so was paired with a Conservative MP, cancelling out the two votes.

He was criticised for his absence by the Scottish National Party.

In 2014, Sarwar was criticised by SNP politicians for sending his son to Hutchesons' Grammar School, a private school and the same school that he himself attended, instead of a state school.

From November 2014 until May 2015, Sarwar served as Shadow Minister for International Development.

Sarwar lost his seat to the Scottish National Party (SNP) at the 2015 general election.

In January 2015, he was awarded the Spirit of Britain Award at that year's British Muslim Awards.

He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region since 2016, having been Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Central from 2010 to 2015.

Born in Glasgow to Pakistani Muslim parents, Sarwar was privately educated at the independent Hutchesons' Grammar School and studied general dentistry at the University of Glasgow.

After leaving Westminster, he was elected at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election on the Glasgow regional list.

Having been defeated in the 2017 Scottish Labour leadership election by Richard Leonard, he was elected as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in the 2021 leadership election.

Sarwar led Scottish Labour into the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, which saw Scottish Labour remain in opposition with two fewer Labour MSPs than at the previous election.

He was defeated by incumbent First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in Glasgow Southside but was returned on the Glasgow regional list.