STEPHEN DAISLEY: Swinney may well be clutching at straws... but it's Sarwar who needs to step up and make a difference

Many Scottish politicians couldn't pinpoint Lochee or Strathmartine on a map this time last week but both names are now ringing in their ears, especially in Scottish Labour .

Thursday saw by-elections in which both wards rebuffed the chance to anoint new Labour councillors and stuck with the SNP . Unsurprisingly, John Swinney has been crowing about the results.

A first minister whose party was in better shape wouldn't need to clutch at such pitiful straws.

Then again, an opposition party that was on the cusp of regaining power wouldn't be volunteering the straws in the first place.

The local paper, The Courier, responded to Labour's double setback with a bracing leader that Anas Sarwar would do well to read.

It points out that 'both seats were ripe for Labour's picking' and the party's 'failure to capitalise on the opportunity sends a clear signal: the electorate remains unconvinced'.

Indeed it does, and not just in Dundee, but there has been not a skerrick of introspection from the losing party. Since the results came in, we have heard some gruel-thin excuses.

'These wards were never winnable for Labour.'

Someone should tell Labour that, for it went into these by-elections talking up its chances. If the party didn't expect to win, it might want to work on its expectations management game.

'It's Dundee and that's just SNP heartland.'

Yet at the general election, Labour cut the SNP's majority in both Dundee constituencies – Dundee Central and Arbroath and Broughty Ferry – to under 2 per cent.

Besides, writing off wards in such defeatist terms is not how a government in waiting speaks.

'It's just a couple of council by-elections. Nothing too much should be read into them.'

That would be a reasonable point if there weren't also causes for concern from opinion polling.

Since the general election, there have been four polls asking Scots how they intend to vote in 2026.

Three have put the SNP ahead on constituency votes while one had the party tied with Labour.

On the regional list, the SNP came out on top in two polls, Labour in one and another had the parties neck and neck.

If the elections were held tomorrow, the SNP would suffer significant losses but, on these numbers, it 's not clear how Labour could form a stable government.

Of course, the elections aren't being held tomorrow. There are 19 months to go and much can happen in that time, but Labour should have established a clear lead before now.

That would have given the party some breathing space should the early days of an incoming UK Labour Government be met with controversy, which they have been.

Now there is no wiggle room.

Scottish Labour must build up its support while hoping Sir Keir Starmer's government finds its footing or that voters will separate whatever feelings they have about politics at Westminster from their decision as to who should run Scotland.

It's reasonable to assume that the initial stumbles of the new government played a role in Labour's Dundee difficulties.

Among those issues said to have come up on the doorsteps is the removal of the winter fuel payment from all but those on Pension Credit.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves says cracking down on this expenditure is essential given the fiscal situation the country finds itself in.

That might carry more weight if the estimated saving was priced somewhere above £1.6billion annually. It's not exactly spare change but it is dwarfed by so many of the government's other spending priorities.

Scottish Labour MPs have backed the PM and the Chancellor, understandably wishing to avoid tensions between the Scottish and UK leadership just months into a new government. Even so, this was a mistake.

The Scottish MP group should have opposed the winter fuel cut. Whatever the wisdom in directing scarce resources away from universal benefits and towards the neediest, the cut was indisputably bad politics.

It does not help that Anas Sarwar spent the election campaign riffing on George H W Bush's pledge: 'Read my lips: no austerity under Labour.' As I pointed out at the time, Bush's promise was only famous because it was broken – and it cost him the next election.

Now, we could argue about the technical definition of austerity, but many voters will have understood Sarwar's words to mean that there would be no significant cuts under Labour.

To a lot of them, snatching back winter fuel payments from pensioners will look like a very significant cut. It's about knowing who your voters are and, more importantly, understanding them.

These same voters will have been thoroughly unimpressed by revelations about the gifts Sir Keir and his senior ministers received from party donor Lord Alli.

It's all well and good saying that such gifts are within the rules (when properly declared) or that politicians of all parties accept freebies.

But when you're a Labour leader, and your campaign for No 10 is built around cleaning up politics, you can't be taking designer clothes and sojourns at posh flats from a major financial contributor who later receives a temporary security pass to Downing Street.

Sue Gray's resignation has only added to the sense of a government unable to keep order in its ranks.

When you are trying to sell competent governance in Scotland , what we've seen in Whitehall is not the best advertisement.

However, these are not the only explanations for those Dundee results. Simply put, Scottish Labour has not sealed the deal with enough voters. Not enough people trust it, not enough are ready to listen to it, not enough know who Sarwar is or what he's for.

As problems go, these are not insurmountable ones. Sarwar is the strongest asset Scottish Labour has.

He's a solid parliamentary performer, good on telly, grasps the SNP's key weaknesses and has the stamina to take the fight to Swinney and his top team.

But there is a risk that complacency has set in, that Scottish Labour has begun to take it for granted that the SNP's days in office are coming to an end.

Make no mistake: the SNP is suffering through trying times right now. It is certainly beatable in 2026, but victory will not fall into Labour's lap. It will have to be earned.

We all have a stake in seeing Labour improve on its 2021 performance.

Whether you're Labour or Tory, Left or Right, we surely all agree that it is imperative the SNP is removed from power at the next Holyrood election.

By that time, the Nationalists will have held a stranglehold over Scotland for 19 years.

Two decades of failure, division, incompetence and secrecy.

Waiting times driven up, education performance driven down, uncontrollable drugs deaths, unsailable ferries and local government funding hollowed out.

There is a heavy political price to be paid for this record but in order for the SNP to cough up, its opponents must fight for every last vote.

Candidly, Anas Sarwar needs to tighten ship, knuckle down, cut loose the driftwood and become much more disciplined.

It's not enough to point to the SNP and hope the voters recognise a shambles when they see one.

They do. But being Not The SNP is simply not enough.

If Sarwar wants to avoid further embarrassments like Dundee, he should stop reciting his mantra of 'change' and tell us exactly what that change will look like.