PROFESSOR John Curtice has given his verdict after Anas Sarwar called for Keir Starmer to quit as Prime Minister.
The polling expert said Sarwar has desperately tried to avoid a "horrible car crash" facing his party in May by making the move but will ultimately find it "very difficult" to dodge the "deep cloud" of his UK counterpart.
Starmer's future as Prime Minister is hanging in the balance after he admitted last week he was aware Peter Mandelson had continued his friendship with the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein before he appointed him as US ambassador.
Sarwar told reporters on Monday afternoon at an emergency press conference that "the distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.”
But it appears to have backfired since with the majority of Starmer's Cabinet rallying behind him in the wake of Sarwar's statement.
READ MORE: Who is running Downing Street now that Morgan McSweeney is gone?
Curtice has said the fact ministers have all had to come out in support of Starmer was a "sign of weakness not a sign a sign of strength".
But he said it remains to be seen as to whether Sarwar's move will result in Starmer resigning.
Curtice told Sky News: "The question we've been asking ourselves was 'so what's going to be the follow up?' We're now two hours on and as far as I'm aware there isn't any follow up.
"There was some speculation about Eluned Morgan, the Welsh First Minister, whether she was going to come out. No sign of it, nobody in the Cabinet so far following up.
"So the truth is this is probably somebody who is reckoning that their party in an election which is just a few weeks away is heading for a horrible car crash and it's now desperately twisted the steering wheel, not knowing at all whether he's going to avoid the car crash, but doing the one thing he thinks he might be able to do to try to turn things around.
"We'll wait to see if Keir Starmer does eventually go or indeed whether it does anything for Labour's chances, but the truth is I think it's going to be very difficult for Anas Sarwar to escape what is the deep cloud of Keir Starmer's unpopularity that's hanging over Scottish Labour's chances in the Holyrood election on May 7."
READ MORE: Alf Dubs blasts Shabana Mahmood for 'kowtowing to Reform UK'
Curtice said what was saving Starmer at the moment is the fact there is not an obvious successor.
Wes Streeting has been touted as a replacement but he has his own links to Mandelson while Angela Rayner, who has also been pipped as a successor, is still awaiting a verdict on whether she was at fault when she underpaid stamp duty on a property in Hove, so he said it does not suit either for Starmer to depart Number 10 now.
He said: "At the moment at least, it's not clear there's much agreement inside the Labour Party or indeed polling evidence to suggest that there is somebody out there who is the obvious answer to Labour's electoral problem."
Share