Nicola Sturgeon savages Scottish Labour leadership candidate Anas Sarwar amid 'set-up' claims

Nicola Sturgeon has inflicted severe damage on a wealthy candidate for the Scottish Labour leadership after his party’s attack on her at First Minister’s Questions rebounded spectacularly on him.

Alex Rowley, the interim Labour leader, used the weekly televised showpiece to accuse Ms Sturgeon’s government of “siding with the millionaires not the millions” and helping “the few, not the many.”

To uproarious laughter from the Nationalist benches, the First Minister gleefully seized on Mr Rowley’s questions to state: “It was really unfair of Alex Rowley to personalise the debate by bringing Anas Sarwar into it.”

She attacked Glasgow MSP Mr Sarwar over his family firm’s failure to pay the living wage lauded by his leadership campaign, saying there was a "gulf as wide as the Clyde" between his words and actions.

The line of questioning – only a day after Mr Sarwar was forced to deny being “one of the few” because of his wealth – prompted speculation that Mr Rowley had teed up Ms Sturgeon’s attack to help Richard Leonard, the hard-Left candidate in the leadership contest.

Some of Mr Sarwar’s supporters were furious, believing it was a set-up. Asked by the Telegraph if this was correct, Mr Rowley did not issue an outright denial but smiled and said: “That’s just stupid, isn’t it?”

Other MSPs believed he was trying to show Labour members voting in the contest how Ms Sturgeon would undermine the party’s Left-wing message if Mr Sarwar wins the leadership. Both Mr Rowley and Mr Leonard are allies of Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Sarwar later attempted to put a brave face on the attack but it completed a bruising week for the 34-year-old, who was the bookmakers’ favourite to replace Kezia Dugdale but has been dogged by questions about his finances.

He has a 23 per cent stake in United Wholesale (Scotland) Ltd, a cash-and-carry business, worth up to £4.8 million. Mr Sarwar has also faced repeated questions about sending his children to private school.

In a car-crash interview on Wednesday he said the company pays less than the £8.45-per-hour real living wage because it is voluntary, not mandatory, and argued he is a minority shareholder who does not take dividends.

His spokesman admitted admitted that he had received dividends of around £20,000 a year but this stopped last year when he was elected an MSP.

Mr Rowley started his questions to Ms Sturgeon by arguing her government was prioritising cutting airline taxes over tackling child poverty, before stating: “Every time the Scottish National Party has to make a tax decision, it sides with the millionaires rather than with the millions.”

This line triggered gales of laughter in the Holyrood chamber, with SNP MSPs pointing at Mr Sarwar. After Ken Macintosh, the presiding officer, restored order, Mr Rowley concluded: “It is another party (that is) for the few, not the many.”

This triggered more hilarity and pointing at Mr Sarwar, before the interim Labour leader concluded:  “Will the First Minister finally accept that, to help the poorest in this country, she has to be prepared to look at taxing the richest in this country?”

After her jibe about Mr Rowley treating Mr Sarwar unfairly prompted further laughter, Ms Sturgeon said: “We have a Labour leadership candidate who lectures others about doing the right thing on pay, yet his own family firm will not pay the living wage voluntarily.”

In a statement issued afterwards, Mr Sarwar said: “I can’t wait to go head-to-head with Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions. If she wants to start early, that is fine with me.”