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Anas Sarwar: I can’t afford an “unpopular” Labour government

The Scottish Labour leader on why defeating the SNP depends on his party delivering at Westminster.

By Chris Deerin

I look at my phone, which rests on the table and is silently recording every word, and then I look back up at Anas Sarwar and wonder whether he’s temporarily forgotten this. The Scottish Labour leader and the man increasingly tipped to become Scotland’s next first minister has just outlined his pre-match warm-up. And, well, wow…

“To gee myself up before any speech or big event or TV debate I listen to music,” he beams. “My songs of choice are ‘Eye of the Tiger’, Bruno Mars’s ‘Uptown Funk’, ‘Where is the Love?’ by Black Eyed Peas, and a bit of Dr Dre.” He adds that his aides patiently, and no doubt nervously, fill in as human punchbags “while I do my ‘Eye of the Tiger’ stuff before I go on”.

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