LABOUR are “slapping down” their Scottish colleagues who want tailored immigration policy for Scotland, according to an SNP MP.
The Home Office has shot down the idea of a visa scheme for Scotland, to allow areas suffering from depopulation easier access to foreign labour.
The SNP’s Pete Wishart told Home Office minister Seema Malhotra she should not reject the idea "out of hand”.
Asked about discussions with the Scottish Government about a potential Scottish visa system, Malhotra said: “[Wishart] will be aware that we are not introducing a Scottish visa scheme or devolving control of immigration policy and this has been made clear to the Scottish Government.
“Instead we must together address the underlying causes of skills shortages and overseas recruitment in different parts of the UK, which this Government is doing.”
The SNP MP replied that Scotland had a “a whole range of demographic and population difficulties that need urgently addressed”.
He claimed that business leaders in “every sector” in Scotland were “calling out for drastic actions” and that “even her Scottish Labour colleagues are beginning to understand the enormity of this task”. Wishart added: “So instead of slapping down and instead of rejecting this out of hand why doesn’t she work with us, just to see if it might actually work?”
In response Malhotra (above, right) said that “net migration must come down, which trebled under the last government, largely driven by overseas recruitment”.
She added: “Immigration is a reserved matter, working in the interests of the whole of the UK.
“Previous schemes along the lines that he has suggested has only succeeded in restricting movement and rights and creating internal UK borders, adding different rules for different locations would also increase complexity and create frictions when workers move locations.”
While many parts of England have become more populous because of immigration, much of rural Scotland is affected by depopulation.
The then-Scottish Executive under Labour and LibDem control in 2004 launched the Fresh Talent Initiative as a tailored migration policy to suit Scotland's needs.
It allowed foreign students to stay on in Scotland after graduating to seek employment but was wound up in 2008.
Other figures in Scottish Labour are in favour of adjusting immigration policy to Scotland's benefit, including deputy leader Jackie Baillie, who claimed before the election a future Labour Government would be open to talks on the topic.
In a debate last month, Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP Torcuil Crichton said "should be" interest in reviving the Fresh Talent Initiative and "rural visa projects", something the Scottish Government has also proposed.
