SNP demands ministers give Scottish government immigration powers

SNP demands ministers give Scottish government the power to set its own looser immigration policy separate from the rest of the UK amid row over student visas

• SNP education spokesperson Carol Monaghan made the astonishing demand 
• But she was quickly shut down by Immigration minister Robert Jenrick 

The SNP demanded Scotland be allowed to set its own immigration policy today as the party attacked Tory attempts to bring down the number of people coming to the UK. 

SNP education spokesperson Carol Monaghan made the astonishing demand as the Government was forced to explain its new policy on foreign students to MPs. 

Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman launched a crackdown on foreign postgraduate students bringing families to the UK with them yesterday.

It includes a ban on families of almost all non-UK nationals students joining them in Britain.

After being allowed an Urgent Question in the Commons over the plan, Ms Monaghan said foreign students ‘enrich our society and they have skills which are proving ever more vital in this post-Brexit climate, which has seen the UK deprived of workers across key sectors’.

She went on: ‘If this Government is insistent and pursuing their hostile environment, will they now accept that Scotland’s needs and Scotland’s wants are different to theirs? 

‘Finally, will the Government now devolve immigration powers to the Scottish Parliament to allow us to choose a way that benefits our communities and our society?’

But she was quickly shut down by Immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who replied: ‘No. We won’t devolve immigration policy to the Scottish Government’.

SNP education spokesperson Carol Monaghan made the astonishing demand as the Government was forced to explain its new policy on foreign students to MPs.

Analysis by the Centre for Policy Studies forecasts net migration could have hit between 700,000 and 997,000 for the year ending December 2022.

She was quickly shut down by Immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who replied: ‘No. We won’t devolve immigration policy to the Scottish Government’.

He earlier told MPs: ‘Net migration is too high, and the Government is committed to bring it down to sustainable levels.’ 

The Government is seeking to reduce legal migration while under pressure from businesses to ensure there are not labour shortages in key industries.

Figures being published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday are widely expected to show net migration running at a record high.

Analysis by the Centre for Policy Studies forecasts net migration could have hit between 700,000 and 997,000 for the year ending December 2022.

Mr Sunak has warned that net migration must be controlled or it could lead to ‘unmanageable pressures on housing, schools and hospitals in many of our communities’.

In a statement to MPs, Ms Braverman said ministers only expect the figures to drop in the ‘medium term’, which is usually deemed to mean around five years. 

Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Sunak said: ‘We can’t have uncontrolled legal migration… when it is too high and too fast, it can make it difficult for communities to integrate new arrivals.

‘We cannot allow people to come here illegally at the whim of criminal gangs. It’s not fair on those who have played by the rules.

‘It’s not fair on those who desperately need our help but can’t get it because our asylum system is overwhelmed by people travelling here through safe countries.’

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