EXCLUSIVE: The Scottish Labour leader recalled the former Manchester United and Aberdeen boss becoming angry about Corbyn.
12:00, 15 Apr 2026
Anas Sarwar has revealed he was once given the famous “hairdryer” treatment by the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson.
The Scottish Labour leader said Fergie gave him the full blast after going tonto about Jeremy Corbyn.
But the MSP ended up saying the former Manchester United gaffer was nice to him and endorsed Scottish Labour in a Holyrood by-election.
Sarwar recalled the funny incident during an interview with the Record’s Planet Holyrood podcast.
He said he was delighted when Ferguson, who also achieved massive success as Aberdeen manager, told a pal he wanted to meet Sarwar:
“It was either 2022 or 2023 and I got a call from someone who’s a very strong mutual friend of both myself and Sir Alex, saying that Sir Alex is in Glasgow [and] he’s really keen to have a chat with you.
“I was feeling very jovial and happy about it.”
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Sarwar also took one of his sons, who is a a huge Christiano Ronaldo fan, but they were taken aback when Sir Alex unleashed a furious tirade about ex Labour leader Corbyn.
He quoted the former football boss saying: “I’m furious, how could you ever give us someone like Jeremy Corbyn to be the leader? You should be offended. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Sarwar said: “I got it for a full twenty minutes, full hair dryer treatment and full pelt. I tried so many times to intervene. No matter what I said, no matter what I tried to persuade him on, he just didn’t stop, carried on going and then after he’d had his 20 minutes and he calmed down, he said ‘you’re all right…you’ll do’.”
Sarwar laughed when he recalled his son’s reaction in the car going home:
He remembered him saying “Dad, I can’t believe it. That isn’t what I thought he’d be like.”
“He just sounded like your average kind of angry guy in Glasgow, upset about the football.”
Sarwar described Ferguson as a “legend” and added:
“I have had the famous Fergie hairdryer treatment, but thankfully not Beckhamesque, leaving with any stitches, scars or any bleeding.”
