{"id":49244,"date":"2025-04-25T11:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T11:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/49244\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T11:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T11:28:07","slug":"holyrood-immigration-power-could-help-with-offsetting-brexit-damage-claims-mp-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/49244\/","title":{"rendered":"Holyrood immigration power could help with \u2018offsetting\u2019 Brexit damage, claims MP \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Devolving immigration powers to Holyrood is \u201ca way of offsetting some of the damage that\u2019s been done by a hostile environment, by Brexit\u201d, an SNP MP has claimed.<\/p>\n

Introducing his Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill, Stephen Gethins told the Commons that migration had \u201cdriven our policies and our economic growth for centuries\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Firms in the health and social work sector were thought to be the worst hit, with 42.9% of businesses reporting shortages.<\/p>\n

\"Delay<\/a>\"Baby<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Gethins told MPs: \u201cFor how long do we have to put up with damaging Westminster policies?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Bill today is a way of offsetting some of the damage that\u2019s been done by a hostile environment, by Brexit \u2013 which I\u2019m astonished daily that the Scottish Labour Party continue to endorse \u2013 and let me talk about the Scottish care system, the current UK immigration system.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us will benefit from the care system at some point \u2013 all of us. And we\u2019ll all have loved ones to have benefited, so I think their voice is a particularly pertinent one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current UK immigration system is failing the social care sector in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Migrants arriving on a skilled worker visa should be able to meet a \u00a338,700 salary threshold \u2013 up from \u00a326,200 \u2013 to qualify.<\/p>\n

Josh Fenton-Glynn, the Labour MP for Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, intervened in Mr Gethins\u2019 speech and said: \u201cThe problem with care is not that we\u2019re not getting cheap labour from elsewhere, it\u2019s that we\u2019re not paying care workers enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Gethins, the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry MP, had earlier said: \u201cMigration has driven our policies and our economic growth for centuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet we lean in, or Labour leans in, to this Reform agenda \u2013 it\u2019s very disappointing that they\u2019re not in their place \u2013 that is so poisonous to our political rhetoric, when we talk about migration and refugees \u2013 two entirely separate issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The private member\u2019s Bill would remove immigration from schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998, which lists \u201creserved matters\u201d still under the control of legislators in Westminster.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis Bill is a simple, one-line Bill that says to devolve the entire immigration system to Scotland,\u201d Scottish Secretary Ian Murray told the Commons.<\/p>\n

Mr Gethins replied that \u201cthis is not ideal\u201d and said he was \u201cvery open to this being amended\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pete Wishart, SNP MP for Perth and Kinross-shire, intervened to say that private members\u2019 Bills are \u201cpractically rewritten and drafted in committee\u201d, a process which would take place if MPs agree to give the Bill a second reading on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Devolving immigration powers to Holyrood is \u201ca way of offsetting some of the damage that\u2019s been done by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[802,748,26654,1102,4884,105,26655,6657,285,712,26656,26657,16,15,3069],"class_list":{"0":"post-49244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-commons","11":"tag-edinburgh","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-holyrood","15":"tag-migration","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-social-work","19":"tag-stephen-gethins","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-westminster"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}