No 10 ducks questions about whether Doyle controversy could result in his peerage being removed – UK politics live | Politics

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has agreed that Keir Starmer can campaign for Labour in the Holyrood elections only days after calling for the prime minister to resign.

In a marked change of position, Sarwar said Starmer and other UK cabinet ministers were welcome to support Scottish Labour’s faltering bid to win the May election but only if they demonstrated how the UK government was improving lives in Scotland.

Two days ago Sarwar caused uproar by calling on Starmer to quit. In early January, Sarwar said he wanted the prime minister to “stay at their desks” in London avoid Scotland during the election campaign because of his deep unpopularity with voters.

He said voters had been left “angry, frustrated and impatient” by the UK government’s repeated policy failures and missteps. Labour sources said Starmer had not been invited to Scottish Labour’s one day pre-election conference later this month.

Pressed by reporters at Holyrood on Wednesday on how he could welcome Starmer and his cabinet allies to Scotland, after demanding he stand down, Sarwar said they were now welcome.

If “the prime minister and other ministers … want to come to Scotland and demonstrate that they’re delivering for Scotland by being a UK Labour government, that’s welcome,” he said. He went on:

But in terms of the campaign, I am leading this campaign, I’m the candidate for first minister. Keir Starmer’s name is not on the ballot paper. My name is on the ballot paper. Scotland will have to choose between me and John Swinney [the Scottish National party leader and current first minister].

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing, No 10 said Starmer would be campaigning in Scotland ahead of the Holyrood elections.

Sarwar’s marked shift of stance only 48 hours after calling for Starmer to quit will fuel suspicions Sarwar is backing down after failing to get any significant shows of support from Labour MPs or any minister.

While a majority of Scottish Labour’s 20 MSPs have openly endorsed Sarwar’s call for Starmer to quit, few Labour MPs have done so. Some Scottish ministers are furious at Sarwar’s intervention. One described it “as incredibly high risk and pretty foolish”, and likely to make things worse for Labour rather than improve it electoral chances.

Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, has urged both men to set aside their differences in a bid to act as peacemaker. Alexander is also a co-chair of Scottish Labour’s election campaign, so is now facing questions inside the party about how he can support Starmer yet work for Sarwar.

Asked whether he still wanted Starmer to resign, Sarwar said he stuck by his remarks on Monday but refused to repeat them. Instead he used more conciliatory words about Starmer’s promises to Labour MPs this week he planned to change his approach. He said:

I stated my view, I stand by that view, I welcome the fact that there is now general acceptance, that things have not been good enough, that there have been far too many mistakes, and things have to change.

I’m the one that’s put myself before the public in three months’ time. And people in Scotland deserve to know what my standards are, what I believe, what I’m willing to tolerate, and what I would do differently if I was elected as first minister.