THE UK Government has insisted Anas Sarwar has followed the ministerial code after he launched into an angry tirade against a director of his family’s wholesale company.
The Trade Minister, recently elevated to the House of Lords, was heard saying that United Wholesale’s finance director David Milton “is fucked if I want him to be” during a heated phone call as he walked across Westminster Bridge on Wednesday evening.
Lord Sarwar has sought to distance himself from United Wholesale, the company run by his brother Asim Sarwar, after it emerged during his failed Scottish Labour leadership bid in 2017 that the firm had failed to pay workers the real living wage.
He announced at the time that he had relinquished his shares in the company, estimated to have been worth £4.5 million, and put them into a trust for his three children’s benefit.
But Lord Sarwar has now rekindled interest in his business activities after his outburst last week.
He was overheard saying: “David Milton [director of United Wholesale] is fucked if I want him to be because we have two-thirds control of the shareholders.”
Now the Trade Minister is facing calls to be “crystal clear” about his financial position.
An SNP source told the Sunday National: “Anas Sarwar should clarify his finances.
“He’s got a plush job for life after calling for Keir Starmer to go and his financial interests should be crystal clear.
“The House of Lords and the world of Westminster are one constant stream of scandal and it’s why re-making and renewing our own democratic institutions with independence is the preferred choice of the Scottish people.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade said: “Minister Sarwar’s interests are fully declared. The ministerial code has been followed at all times, and his interests will be published in the usual way.”
His entry on the Lords register of interests shows only his paid position as Trade Minister for the UK Government.
Lord Sarwar’s connection to the family firm have posed difficulties for him in the past. He lost the Scottish Labour leadership election to Richard Leonard almost a decade ago to after it emerged the company was not paying staff a living wage.
This allegation was later repeated in the run-up to the 2024 General Election, after Lord Sarwar had been elected Scottish Labour leader in 2021, but was later denied by Usdaw, the union representing workers at United Wholesale and which funds the Labour Party.
In a statement, the union said: “Usdaw has a trade union recognition agreement with United Wholesale Scotland and we negotiate on pay with the company.
“In our last negotiation we agreed a pay deal that delivered an income higher than the real living wage for all employees.”
At the time, Lord Sarwar used the episode to illustrate his distance from the firm after he initially accepting the erroneous claim about the company in an interview.
He said: “I have no shares in this business and actually the evidence has shown I don’t have the information on this business.”
Lord Sarwar clung on for two months as Scottish Labour leader after leading the party to its worst-ever Holyrood defeat earlier this year and insisted he would not step down.
Despite previously saying he would never take a seat in the Lords, he accepted a peerage in July to join Andy Burnham’s government.
His ennoblement marked Lord Sarwar’s return to Westminster after an 11 year absence following his defeat at the 2015 General Election, when he lost his Commons seat to the SNP’s Alison Thewliss.
He failed to win a constituency seat in Holyrood on three occasions and served as a regional list MSP before quitting the Scottish Parliament.
The Labour Party and United Wholesale did not respond to requests for comment.
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