Not a happy millionaire: Scottish Labour leadership row over pay rates at Anas Sarwar's family firm, why should people believe Anas Sarwar can be a leader when his family won’t pay the real living wage to their employees unless they are legally obliged too, BBC interview puts Anas Sarwar on backfoot

Dear All

There comes a time when you should realise that something is over and just walk away, it seems that Anas Sarwar has reached that tipping point, question is, does he recognise it.

There is now a fresh Scottish Labour leadership row over pay rates at Anas Sarwar's family firm; it appears that the Sarwar family don’t pay the real living wage because it is only voluntary, not mandatory.

In other words, unless compelled by law the Sarwar family has no interest in paying the real living wage. This prompts a series of questions:

just how ‘socialist’ is the family of Anas Sarwar?  

have they ever paid more than the law compels them?

what are the terms and conditions of the lowest paid in his family business?

In relation to sending his children to private school, Anas did something rather weak, he sought to ‘share the blame’ by dobbing in his wife by saying she was partly responsible for the decision.

When in doubt blame someone else, but still take some of the blame yourself because as a leader you have to stand by your decisions, good and bad. Anas has rightly said that people should respect a decision made by a couple “in the privacy of their own home”.

The bit that this falls down is that, Anas is a public figure, in politics there is such a thing as leading by example, clearly he isn’t prepared to do this, but then he is a millionaire, he can spend his money where he chooses.

One other statement which he may regret later is saying:

“The fact is too many of our schools aren’t good enough in Scotland.”

In Glasgow, the Labour Party has control of the council and education for 40 years, so he has opened up a can of worms there, now he has to talk about Labour failure in education in Glasgow. Of course, I am sure he will rope in the SNP Government for 10 years of their failures as well.

The decision by Anas Sarwar to criticised Good Morning Scotland presenter Gary Robertson, accusing him of focusing on personality issues rather than policy was clearly a sign he was rattled by having to defend his decisions and those his family have made in the past.  

Anas Sarwar is a centrist millionaire MSP in a party that was setup by the working class for the betterment of the working class, although having money and influence to a certain degree in the Labour Party due to the minority vote, the wider movement wants a Corbyn supporter.

Anas Sarwar had a crack at leadership when he was Johann Lamont’s deputy, that didn’t turn out well just in the same way that Kezia Dugdale being deputy to Jim Murphy was a disaster too.

The Labour Party has a slogan which doesn’t help Anas at the moment, ‘for the many, not the few’; the truth is that Anas Sarwar is one of the rich privileged few, a multi-millionaire born into wealth, private schooled and university educated, to make matters worse, he joined the ‘Progress’ crowd of entitled middle class people who gain control of the party to the detriment of working class people. The Labour Party ‘Progress’ crowd brought in such measures as the ‘bedroom tax’ and ‘ATOS assessments’ not the Conservatives.

Although sending his children to private school is something he will ride out in his leadership struggle, his links to his family firm aren’t something which can be swept away under the carpet.

Anas Sarwar said:

“One, I’m a minority shareholder in the company. Second, I have no role in the company. I’m not a director in the company. I have no say in how the company operates. But I have had assurances from the company that they do want to transition to a real living wage for all employees”.

Was that discussed round the family kitchen table?

Anas added:

“They too have welcomed the fact that a Labour government would introduce a real living wage much quicker than the current UK government, meaning they’d be able to implement it quicker, and also so it’s compulsory on every company. I don’t care who the shareholder of any company is, I don’t care which company it is, I want every company to be mandated by the government to pay the real living wage and not use the market as the excuse.”

His family ‘welcome’ it but won’t pay it unless they are compelled by law?

Is there any obstacle to them paying the real living wage for all employees now?

Clearly the answer is yes, have you figured out what the problem is, it isn’t the law, the problem is the Sarwar family.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University