More Scots back tougher curbs on immigration – Daily Business

Growing opposition to immigration in Scotland has dealt a blow to First Minister John Swinney’s campaign to encourage more workers to move north of the border.

New polling shows more than half of voters in favour of firmer controls on foreign labour.

Tougher measures to cut immigration, announced by Sir Keir Starmer last month, are backed 51% of Scottish voters with only 28% opposed, according to the latest Norstat poll.

This compares with 42% who backed curbs to immigration in February last year and 38% in September 2023 in surveys for Migration Policy Scotland.

Mr Swinney last week told the Prosper Forum in Edinburgh that the labour force needed to be boosted by getting more inactive people into work, and by more migration.

“Our working-age population is shrinking and we need that population to grow,” he said “..and I am profoundly concerned by the direction of travel on migration. The level of debate is going in entirely the wrong direction”.

Scotland Office minister Kirsty McNeill told the same gathering that there was “no appetite” for a Scottish visa.

“We have asked for evidence and we did not receive it. Give us the evidence and we will make Scotland’s case, but there is no call for a separate immigration policy,” she said.

Separately, Paul Sheerin, chief executive of Scottish Engineering, said the Prime Minister’s immigration policy is likely to undermine the recruitment of vital workers needed to grow the economy.

He said skilled staff cannot be trained “overnight” to replace those from other countries who could be denied entry under new migration rules.

“I found the UK Government’s latest pronouncements on immigration disappointing,” he wrote in the group’s latest quarterly review.

The new poll, for The Times newspaper, shows backing for immigration control is highest among Reform UK and Conservative voters, as well as those who voted for Brexit and against Scottish independence.

It comes ahead of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s visit to Scotland today. SNP voters are the most pro-immigration in Scotland with only 32% in favour of Sir Keir Starmer’s immigration measures.