Care system will suffer under UK immigration plan | UK News

Scotland’s deputy first minister says she is in “no doubt” that the country’s care system will suffer from UK government plans to tighten immigration rules.

Kate Forbes said Scotland needed to take a “distinct approach” to the rest of the UK.

It came after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said his government would “take back control” of UK borders as he outlined plans to cut net migration.

This includes proposals to cut the recruitment of care workers from overseas and tighten English language requirements for immigrants.

Forbes said she listened with “absolute astonishment” to reports that the UK government wanted to cut the recruitment of overseas care workers.

She told Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme the proposals were “baffling” to those working in the industry.

The deputy first minister said: “I am in no doubt whatsoever that our care system is going to suffer from the changes that reportedly are going to be made today.”

She said Scotland faced “demographic challenges”, and that “one of the most pressing issues that investors, developers, public services tell us right now is being able to recruit a workforce”.

Forbes said: “With a small population of about five million people, Scotland needs a distinct immigration system, a distinct approach to the immigration system, we have shared that with the UK government.”

She told the programme this could possibly be done using a separate “Scottish visa” – something that the UK government previously said it was not considering.

The deputy first minister also raised concerns about plans to enforce stricter standards on graduate visas “when we know so much of Scotland’s economic growth has come from international students that have chosen to be based in Scotland”.

Announcing his plans, Sir Keir said that from 2019 to 2023 net migration “quadrupled” under the previous Conservative administration, reaching a record high of nearly one million in the year to 2023.

He said this is almost the size of the city of Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city.

“That’s not control, it’s chaos,” he told a news conference.

Under the White Paper proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship, but so-called “high-contributing” individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.

Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.

Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning that they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.

Meanwhile, skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.

Sir Keir said: “Let me put it this way, nations depend on rules, fair rules.

“In a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that these rules become even more important without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”