LABOUR have been accused of blocking a vote on a bid to give Scotland control over immigration policy.
Introducing his Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill, Stephen Gethins told the Commons that migration had “driven our policies and our economic growth for centuries”.
But the SNP accused Labour of running down the clock to prevent the bill from being put to a vote. At the end of a lengthy debate, Gethins proposed it be resumed on July 11.
According to business insights and conditions survey results published by the Scottish Government, an estimated 22.6% of businesses were experiencing a shortage of workers in February this year.
Firms in the health and social work sector were thought to be the worst hit, with 42.9% of businesses reporting shortages.
Gethins (below) told MPs: “For how long do we have to put up with damaging Westminster policies?
“This bill today is a way of offsetting some of the damage that’s been done by a hostile environment, by Brexit – which I’m astonished daily that the Scottish Labour Party continue to endorse – and let me talk about the Scottish care system, the current UK immigration system.
“All of us will benefit from the care system at some point – all of us. And we’ll all have loved ones to have benefited, so I think their voice is a particularly pertinent one.
“The current UK immigration system is failing the social care sector in Scotland.
“The recent rule changes, particularly the ban on dependents which has had a big impact on other sectors as well, and the incompatible increase in the minimum salary threshold, exacerbate existing recruitment challenges and pose significant risks to the sustainability in delivery of the care services.”
Social care workers are not normally allowed to bring their dependants, for example, their partners and children, into the UK using their health and social care visa, after changes made last year.
Migrants arriving on a skilled worker visa should be able to meet a £38,700 salary threshold – up from £26,200 – to qualify.
Josh Fenton-Glynn, the Labour MP for Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, intervened in Gethins’s speech and said: “The problem with care is not that we’re not getting cheap labour from elsewhere, it’s that we’re not paying care workers enough.”
Gethins, the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry MP, had earlier said: “Migration has driven our policies and our economic growth for centuries.
“Yet we lean in, or Labour leans in, to this Reform agenda – it’s very disappointing that they’re not in their place – that is so poisonous to our political rhetoric, when we talk about migration and refugees, two entirely separate issues.”
The private member’s bill would remove immigration from Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998, which lists “reserved matters” still under the control of legislators in Westminster.
“His bill is a simple, one-line bill that says to devolve the entire immigration system to Scotland,” Scottish Secretary Ian Murray told the Commons.
Gethins replied that “this is not ideal” and said he was “very open to this being amended”.
Pete Wishart, SNP MP for Perth and Kinross-shire, intervened to say that private members’ bills are “practically rewritten and drafted in committee”.
Speaking afterwards, Gethins said: "The Labour Party has broken its promise to voters, and is actively damaging Scotland's economy and public services, by blocking a Scottish visa and the devolution of migration powers while imposing a hard Brexit on Scotland."
He added that the "ball is now firmly back in the Labour Party's court", saying: "There is widespread support for a Scottish visa, and the devolution of migration powers, across vital Scottish industries and public services including the NHS and social care, hospitality and tourism, agriculture, construction, and higher education. The Labour Party must explain why it is arrogantly dismissing Scotland's needs out of hand."
