Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is to call on Keir Starmer to stand down as prime minister and Labour leader at a hastily arranged press conference in Glasgow.

Sarwar is said to be furious that the prime minister’s repeated mistakes have heavily damaged support for Scottish Labour in the run-up to crucial Scottish parliament elections in May.

The latest opinion polls show Labour trailing in third place behind the Scottish National party and Reform, and Sarwar and his advisers have calculated it will be impossible for Starmer to recover after the scandal over Peter Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein.

Sarwar’s team was deeply irritated to learn last week that the prime minister was arguing internally that he needed to stay in power to help Scottish Labour win May’s election. They believe the polls show that Starmer’s continued leadership will destroy Scottish Labour’s electoral chances.

The polling company More in Common found on Friday that Labour had fallen four points in the Holyrood constituency vote, to lag behind Reform in second and was also a point behind Reform on the list vote.

Until the latest details about the Epstein scandal broke, Sarwar had repeatedly defended Starmer’s record, and only last week offered the prime minister his tentative support.

In the months following Scottish Labour’s success in the 2024 general election, when it won 37 out of Scotland’s 57 Westminster seats, Sarwar had been extremely confident of winning the Holyrood election.

He brought in more than a £1m in donations, winning backing from wealthy Scottish business leaders, and believed Scottish voters had grown weary and disappointed with the SNP after 18 years in government.