Labour promised to consider a Scottish immigration visa – until they got their turn at power in Westminster. At which point they u-turned. But why is one essential?

Firstly, Scotland’s population growth is much slower than England’s – and has been for some time. Although more people move to Scotland than leave, our birth rate is too low. This means the population is getting older. And this causes the second issue: Scotland’s working age population is decreasing.

So as Scotland’s economy and general population grows, we do not have enough people of working age to fill all our jobs. We need immigrants to help address this.

This is not true in England – and, as is always the case in the UK – Westminster sets its priorities based on the situation in England. So in England immigration has been turned into a huge political issue. The right wing swing voters that both Labour and the Tories need for power in Westminster are usually very concerned to see it dropping.

So why does the Labour Westminster Government dismiss this proposal out of hand? Because it plays badly with their target voters in England.

Sources

National Records of Scotland:

Age data: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/statistics/population-projections/2014-based/pp14-corrected.pdf

Population change across the nations: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/statistics/population-projections/2014-based/pp14-fig13.pdf