LABOUR have been accused of pushing forward with “extreme” curbs on immigration which will be “utterly devastating” for several Scottish sectors.
On Sunday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the UK Government is going to close the care worker visa route for overseas recruitment.
The SNP said this showed ministers “running scared” of Nigel Farage after Reform UK’s historic wins in the English local elections, and polling showing they are a growing threat to the current two-party system.
They argued the latest move will have a dire impact on Scotland's NHS, care sector, public services and economy.
The Scottish Greens said the move would "hammer" services in Scotland.
Labour’s announcement comes weeks after CEO of Scottish Care, Donald Macaskill, spoke out about the significant challenges facing the care sector. This included “increasing wage bills due to the national insurance rise, immigration controls limiting the ability to hire staff [and] growing demand from an ageing population.”
The SNP has repeatedly called for a bespoke Scottish visa to attract workers to fill labour shortages.
Speaking to Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Cooper laid out some of the details that will be set out this week with the Immigration White Paper.
She said: “We’re going to introduce new restrictions on lower-skilled workers, so new visa controls, because we think actually what we should be doing is concentrating on the higher-skilled migration and we should be concentrating on training in the UK.
Cooper later told the BBC that the rules around the care worker visa will be changed to “prevent” it being used “to recruit from abroad”.
“We will allow them to continue to extend visas and also to recruit from more than 10,000 people who came on a care worker visa, where the sponsorship visa was cancelled,” the Home Secretary said.
“Effectively they came to jobs that weren’t actually here or that were not of a proper standard.
“They are here and care companies should be recruiting from that pool of people, rather than recruiting from abroad, we are closing recruitment from abroad.
“That is a significant change and we’re doing it alongside saying we need to bring in a new fair pay agreement for care workers, because we saw that huge increase in care work recruitment from abroad, but without actually ever tackling the problems in the system in the care sector.”
The SNP described the announcement as "extreme".
The party's Westminster deputy leader, Pete Wishart MP (below) said: “Labour’s crackdown on immigration will be utterly devastating to Scotland’s economy and public services like our NHS and care sector.
"Not only is Labour continuing the Tories’ damaging agenda but now they are going even further with its self-defeating, hostile migration policies.
Wishart added: “It’s clear Labour is running scared of Nigel Farage but, by moving onto his territory, Labour are only emboldening him. The only way to beat Farage is by taking him on and exposing his bogus claims and arguments.
“Once again, it is clear that Scotland is an afterthought for Westminster – only the SNP is focussed on the priorities of people across Scotland and creating a better future for everyone.
“This is yet another argument for why Scotland should take our own decisions, on questions like migration, through independence.”
Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay said: “This is a cruel and totally self-defeating policy that will only serve to hammer Scotland’s services.
“There have been warnings of staff shortages from the care sector and others, and these policies will only make them more severe.
“It is extremely cynical politics. Nigel Farage just has to say ‘jump’ and Labour will ask how high."
Mackay added that immigration policy should not be "set by the far right priorities of Reform".
"Trying to imitate them won’t help anyone," she added.
“Labour has kept a lot of the most hostile anti-migrant Tory policies in place and doubled down on a failed Brexit that they know has hiked up prices, cost jobs and undermined our right to travel.
“It is time for Scotland to have powers over immigration so that we can build a humane system that treats migrants as human beings and supports our services rather than harming them.
“We can’t allow real people’s lives to be used as pawns in a nasty race to the bottom between Labour, the Tories and Reform.”
