By Paul Hutcheon

Copyright dailyrecord

Anas Sarwar has urged the Labour Government to be more “confident” and set out a “positive” vision of the future . In his speech to the UK Labour conference, he urged Keir Starmer and his colleagues to stop being “shy” in selling their record to voters . He also said the NHS would not survive another SNP win next year and branded Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a “poisonous” and “pathetic” man. Sarwar delivered his robust message to Starmer on the same day another opinion poll showed Labour on course to lose the next Holyrood election. Senior party figures believe the Prime Minister has been too negative and they want him to speak more about policies that have helped ordinary Scots. He told Labour delegates: “We need to be more confident in telling our Labour story. We can’t expect the right wing press to do our jobs for us. We can’t afford to be shy about the successes we have had. Or about the positive changes we are making. “If we aren’t going to talk about our successes – then no one else will. If we aren’t going to tell our positive story, then people aren’t going to hear it.” Sarwar reeled off policies like the “biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation”, higher wages and scrapping zero hours contracts as measures not to be “shy about”. He also talked up a £10bn defence deal and lower mortgage bills, before saying: “The truth is that we need to go further and shout louder about what we have done. Because the fact is that we are allowing our opponents to set the political weather too often. We are changing lives for the better but we need to be more confident telling our story.” In an attack on the SNP and First Minister John Swinney, who he is trying to replace, he accused the Nationalists of squandering the extra money provided to Holyrood by the Labour Government He said: “The brutal truth is that Scotland’s NHS won’t survive a third decade of John Swinney and this knackered and out of touch SNP. Record funding from Labour for our NHS in Scotland – but where has the money gone? “This is just characteristic of an SNP government that cannot be trusted with your money. “Scots working hard and paying their taxes all their lives. But when they look at Scotland’s public services what do Scots see every day? “Cuts to police numbers. Rising violent crime. Falling educational standards. 10,000 homeless children. And Scots being forced to emigrate to get jobs as doctors, nurses, and teachers. “Scots are paying more and more but they are getting less and less from the SNP. So, we are rightly demanding to know, where has the money gone?” With Reform UK tipped to push Labour into third place at the Holyrood election, Sarwar took aim at Farage. He blasted a recent by-election advert run by Reform which appeared to suggest Sarwar would prioritise communities from Pakistan: “Reform attempted to set community against community, and even cast doubt on my identity. The truth is Farage didn’t even know where Hamilton was, he probably thought it was a stage show in the West End. “So I say to Nigel – Scotland is my home. I am working day and night to change my country for the better. My story is Scotland’s story. “Whereas you are a pathetic and poisonous little man that doesn’t care about Scotland, doesn’t understand Scotland, and that’s why Scotland will utterly reject you. All Reform can do is create noise that risks keeping the failing SNP in power.” In an interview with the Record over the weekend, Sarwar recognised the scale of his electoral problems by claiming he is now the “underdog” in the Holyrood poll. He said: “I’ve always been the underdog as Scottish Labour leader. I was the underdog in the general election. We won. I was the underdog in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election. We won. I am the underdog in the Scottish election and I am confident we are going to win.” Meanwhile, Sarwar offered his support to Starmer days after he withheld his full backing for the embattled Prime Minister. The Glasgow MSP said he “absolutely” has confidence in the PM and insisted he remains an asset for Labour. Sarwar, whose party is predicted to come third in the Holyrood election, pointedly refused to back Starmer on Thursday. Asked if he had confidence in the PM, Sarwar said at that point: “He’s got a very difficult job and we’ve made significant progress in the last year. But if I had one criticism of a UK Labour Government, it is that there have been huge successes, but very few people have been told about them.” Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, he now said he “absolutely” supports Starmer: “What I said last week was that it’s frankly a ridiculous question to be asked about a man who just 15 months ago got rid of a rotten Tory government. “Look what Keir Starmer did. He lifted the Labour Party up from the ground. He got rid of the Tories that were doing so much damage to our country. “He won an absolute landslide and he is getting on the job of clearing the mess left by the Tories and improving our country for the better.” To sign up to the Daily R ecord Politics newsletter, click here