Burnham Faces Backlash Over Peerage For Labour Leader

Andy Burnham has been hit by a backlash after giving a life peerage and government job to Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

Scottish Labour MPs are said to be “furious” at the move, which comes seven months after Sarwar called on Keir Starmer to quit as prime minister over the Peter Mandelson scandal.

Since then, Sarwar has led Labour to its worst ever performance at the Scottish Parliament elections, where the party came a distant second to the SNP and saw its number of MSP fall to just 17.

Nevertheless, he has been rewarded by Burnham, who has made him a minister for state in the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

Because he is not an MP, Sarwar has also been made a life peer so he can take up the role.

He is also stepping down as Scottish Labour leader, plunging the party north of the Border into fresh turmoil.

One Scottish Labour MP told HuffPost UK that the new PM’s decision had gone down “very, very badly”.

The MP said: “There are 37 Scottish Labour MPs all capable of being ministers. We don’t need to import more. We are furious.”

Sarwar has also been accused of “engineering” his move south with Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander, his close ally who also played a key role in Labour’s disastrous Holyrood campaign.

“Colleagues believe that both Anas and Douglas have failed upwards,” an MP said.

But another Labour MP said: “Good luck to Anas. He gave heart and soul to leading Labour in Scotland.

“No one will take his promotion away from him so long as his first vote is to abolish the House of Lords.”

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