Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has broken his silence on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s immigration reforms.
On Monday, Starmer warned that the UK risks becoming an “island of strangers” without controls on immigration.
In response, the UK Labour Government outlined a suite of proposals to control and crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration – including plans to end the recruitment of care workers from abroad and ramp up English language requirements across the board.
Sarwar agreed with Starmer that the UK needs a “managed and controlled” immigration system, but he declined to comment on the Prime Minister’s “island of strangers” language.
“We need an immigration system that works for every part of the country, and that means a managed and controlled immigration system,” Sarwar told STV News.
“The reality is, under the Conservative Party, we had a broken immigration system and that’s what the Prime Minister is trying to address.”
Sarwar said migration has had “many, many positives” for both Scotland and the UK, but he said you can be pro-migration and pro-the-benefits of migration but “still support a controlled and workable immigration system”.
“That’s what I support,” Sarwar said.
Sarwar avoided making any direct criticisms of either the Prime Minister or his immigration proposals – unlike some of Starmer’s own backbench MPs who have criticised the language used on Monday.
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, previously said migrants are being “scapegoated for problems that they didn’t cause”.
“Why are we trying to ape Reform when that will do nothing to improve our constituents’ lives and just stoke more division?” she said on Monday.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who lost the Labour whip last year after rebelling on a welfare vote, accused Sir Keir of “reflecting the language” of Enoch Powell’s infamous “rivers of blood speech” in the 1960s.
Many critics have been particularly concerned about the proposals to end the recruitment of care workers from abroad, citing the industry’s reliance on overseas workers.
However, Sarwar said the Government must take a “balanced approach” to these problems. He said the transition period will be important, and he said the UK skills system must be supported to provide home-grown talent.
Sarwar said he believed improving low pay and care work conditions would help to improve the carer retention rates and attract more people from Scotland and the UK to join the social care sector.
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