Scottish Labour leader says he doesn’t regret calling for Starmer to quit – UK politics live

‘Honesty is strength’ – Anas Sarwar says he does not regret calling for PM to quit, but stresses he’s now ‘looking to future’

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has said that he had a “reasonable” conversation with Keir Starmer yesterday, despite Sarwar having not retracted his call for the PM to quit.

Sarwar said that he stood by what he said when he announced on Monday that he wanted Starmer to stand down.

But he also said he was “looking to the future”, implying that he is not actively trying to orchestrate Starmer’s removal now.

The news on Monday that Sarwar was going to say Starmer should go prompted intense speculation as to whether cabinet ministers would also declare he no longer had their confidence. But all members of the cabinet did subsequently issue statements backing Starmer, it became obvious that there would be no immediate leadership contest, and on Wednesday Sarwar indicated that he wanted to draw a line under the dispute. He did not withdraw what he had said, but he did not repeat his call for Starmer’s resignation either.

Speaking to reporters today, Sarwar said he and Starmer spoke yesterday.

He said:

It was a perfectly fair and reasonable conversation about how we make sure that we are focused on the election on May 7.

He’s determined that he wants to deliver for the people of Scotland.

I made very clear that I want a UK Labour government demonstrating it’s delivering for Scotland, and I made clear that the choice in the election campaign is going to be between me and John Swinney [the first minister].

I didn’t step back from what I said, I stand by what I said and what I stated, but I’m looking to the future and the choice between me and John Swinney for this country.

The event saw Sarwar restate his party’s support for nuclear energy, which allowed him to joke that he had taken the “nuclear option” twice in the same week.

Sarwar also said he felt “liberated” after calling Starmer’s resignation.

“Honesty is strength, not weakness,” he said when asked if he felt stronger in his position after Monday’s statement.

We have seen dishonesty from this SNP government time and time again.

I feel liberated and energised for the election campaign ahead, because, for me, my first loyalty and my first priority is to my country, Scotland.

Anas Sarwar giving in Edinburgh today. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesShare

Updated at 09.43 EST

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For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

Keir Starmer being greeted as he arrives at the Munich Security Conference. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AFP/Getty ImagesShare

Farage claims democracy in Ukraine ‘destroyed’ by Maidan revolution and those wanting closer links with Europe

In his Political Thinking podcast interview, Nick Robinson also asked Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, about his claim in 2014 that offering Ukraine membership of the EU would provoke Russia, triggering a war. Farage said that he had been right, and he said it was “odd to get so much abuse for being right”.

When Robinson put it to him that Farage should have been backing those Ukrainiains in 2014 who were in favour of closer links with Europe, because they were standing up for freedom and democracy, Farage did not accept the premise of his question.

He replied:

That’s the irony of the whole thing – that a democratically elected president of Ukraine was brought down by a street coup [in 2014]. Talk about democracy – actually, democracy was destroyed by those that wanted to drag Ukraine westward rather than eastward. In all of these things, picking goodies and badies is a very difficult game to play.

When Robinson asked if Farage was saying Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the current president, was not democractically elected, Farage said he was not talking about Zelensksyy. He said he was referring to Petro Poroshenko, the president elected after the Maiden revolution.

Poroshenko replace Viktor Yanukovych, who was seen as pro-Russian and corrupt and who triggered the Maidan revolution when he blocked a trade agreement with the EU that had been passed by the Ukrainian parliament.

In complaining about Yanukovych’s overthrow, Farage was very much siding with the Russian view of Ukraine. In Ukraine the Maidan protesters are still viewed as heroes.

Farage claimed that his interpretation of Ukrainian history was “based on knowledge and fact”, not emotion. When Robinson put it to him that he was happy to use emotive arguments himself, Farage claimed that he understood the situation better than most people.

He said:

[Those critics] wouldn’t understand, would they? They wouldn’t undertand that, unlike most other politicians, I’m actually quite well read.

I’ve got a broad sense of history and economics – far more, frankly and being honest, than most of our leaders of the other parties over the course of the last few years, and I am able to take a long-term view.

I think my understanding of Russian psychology was actually much deeper than any of the others’.

Farage said the “biggest disappointment” was that President Trump thought, when he got Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, Putin would behave rationally. And that has not happened, Farage said.

Kemi Badenoch has been speaking at the Welsh Conservative conference. She started with jibes about the unpopularity of the Labour government in Cardiff. But the Tories are hardly very popular there either.

More in Common has today published some polling for the Senedd elections in May and it suggests that Reform UK is well ahead.

Polling for Senedd elections Photograph: More in Common

Polling often does not provide an accurate guide to election results. But normally polling companies produce results that are broadly similar. That is not happening in Wales. While More in Common has Reform UK in the lead by seven points, a YouGov poll last month had Plaid Cymru 14 points ahead.

However, both polls suggest the most likely outcome after the election is a Plaid-led government. If the More in Common figures turn out to be accurate, Reform UK and the Tories would be close to having a majority – but Plaid is in a stronger position because it has it more potential coalition partners.

Brexit would never have happened without YouTube, Farage claims

Brexit would never happened without YouTube, Nigel Farage has claimed.

The Reform UK leader made this assertion, about the influence of YouTube and social media generally, in an interview with Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking podcast.

Farage was arguing that (contrary to what Robinson was suggesting) that social media has been a force for good – although this argument is unlikely to impress voters as a whole, who now believe Brexit was a mistake by a margin of almost two to one.

When Robinson put it to Farage that social media was having a negative impact on children and families, Farage replied:

Hang on. We’d never had had Brexit without YouTube. I wouldn’t have existed without YouTube.

Nobody would know who Nigel Farage is without YouTube.

It was because YouTube came along my speeches in the European parliament started to reach enormous audiences, and then the Today programme started inviting me on because of the level of public attention that I was getting.

So, actually, social media has been quite an important part of, you can call it the populist revolt or whatever it is.

Farage said he was worried about some aspects of social media.

When Robinson put it Farage that because he was pro-Trump, he would not stand up to US social media companies, he did not accept that. And he said that “of course” he was worried about the impact of social media on under-16s.

ShareKeir Starmer and Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, disembarking from their plane as they arrived in Munich this afternoon for the security conference.
Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty ImagesShare