Andy Burnham sparks fury with peerage for Anas Sarwar in appointments blitz before PM heads north

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will be handed a peerage and made a minister in the new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade in Andy Burnham’s third night in a row of ministerial appointments.

Downing Street announced the appointment of 47 new ministers and whips and the re-appointment of 17 others late on Wednesday evening.

 

Among those handed new jobs is Ruth Mackenzie, the British Council’s director of arts, who has also been made a peer and will be a junior minister in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

The soon-to-be Lord Sarwar apologised for Scottish Labour’s wipeout in Holyrood in May – and handed over the reins to his deputy Jackie Baillie, as he will have to leave the Scottish Parliament and step down as leader to accept a peerage.

But while he heads south, Andy Burnham will head even further north than Manchester to meet the Scottish and Welsh first ministers in Glasgow today.

John Swinney, the First Minister of Scotland, condemned the “hypocrisy” of Mr Sarwar’s peerage on Wednesday.

“I think what it demonstrates is an appalling level of judgment by Anas Sarwar… He said before the election he had absolutely no interest in going to the House of Lords, he only wanted to be first minister of Scotland.

“Then, after the election, Anas Sarwar has accepted a place in the House of Lords – a body, by the way, he wants to abolish.

“That is an incredible level of hypocrisy and it just illustrates what I think the Prime Minister is trying to address, which is the fact that politicians say one thing one minute and then do another thing the next minute, when it suits them.

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