Ian Murray: Labour's immigration plan is fair and balanced

The Herald Scotland

14-05-2025

Most people – including most immigrants – want a functioning system that is orderly, predictable and fair. Nobody could describe our current situation as that. The Tories broke the system, deliberately, in a callous move as a political experiment.
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The reality is that net migration has quadrupled in just four years, reaching unprecedented levels. This happened while employer investment in training the UK workforce fell, reducing opportunities for people here to secure work, get on and contribute.
This, alongside years of austerity, strained public services, and a lack of houses and decent jobs for our young people, has bred a lack of trust in the system.
That lack of trust does not come from one single issue, and politicians who claim otherwise are simply wrong about the moment we are in.
Immigration is not the source of all our problems, but it is not the solution to all of them either. We need a balanced approach to maximising the benefits and minimising the costs.
This Labour UK Government ended austerity with more money for public services in Scotland than ever before, and the biggest upgrade in workers' rights for a generation.
Now we are setting out targeted reforms which will help attract highly skilled individuals to drive innovation in Scotland's key sectors such as renewable energy, life sciences and technology.
We are also increasing the skills threshold for work visas to degree level – making sure skilled work truly means skilled work and ending the reliance on lower-skilled overseas labour that grew under the last UK Government.
We are also going to support refugees who have been officially granted protection status in the UK to apply for employment through existing worker routes where they have the skills to do so.
And we are enhancing the opportunities for exceptional talent to come to the UK, integrate and contribute to the economy.
We will increase the number of places for research interns, including those working in AI, make it simpler for top scientific and design talent to come to the UK, and reform the Innovator Founder visa to help international graduates build businesses in the UK – supercharging growth in our key industries.
Sadly, all of this is in sharp contrast with an SNP Scottish Government which is, as usual, moving fast on incendiary rhetoric but going slow on actually improving the lives of people in Scotland.
I suggest it is the lack of housing, college places, the poor connectivity and infrastructure, and long NHS waiting times – all the things the SNP Scottish Government are responsible for.
We want to see the Scottish Government step up and do more to support skills for working-class young people in Scotland.
Instead, college places are at their lowest in over a decade and facing further cuts from the SNP this year. Meanwhile, more than 1,300 kids – the equivalent of a full high school – left school last year with no qualifications to their name at all.
It is intolerable to me and to progressive politics that nearly one in six young people in Scotland are not in education, employment or training – while the SNP deny those young people opportunities and merely say immigration will alleviate all of Scotland's ills.
Failing public services, a lack of investment, fewer opportunities for young people, increased net migration – all these issues combine to break down trust in the system.
All across the country, people are scunnered. A government of service to working people addresses those concerns; a government of service to its party will not.
I'm married to a French national, my children are bilingual and my extended family live and work all over the world, so I know that immigration enriches our communities socially, culturally and economically.
But it is possible to be positive about the contribution immigration plays to our communities while, at the same time, wanting a system that is controlled, ordered and fair.
Most people – including most immigrants – want a functioning system that is orderly, predictable and fair. Nobody could describe our current situation as that. The Tories broke the system, deliberately, in a callous move as a political experiment.
The reality is that net migration has quadrupled in just four years, reaching unprecedented levels. This happened while employer investment in training the UK workforce fell, reducing opportunities for people here to secure work, get on and contribute.
This, alongside years of austerity, strained public services, and a lack of houses and decent jobs for our young people, has bred a lack of trust in the system.
That lack of trust does not come from one single issue, and politicians who claim otherwise are simply wrong about the moment we are in.
Immigration is not the source of all our problems, but it is not the solution to all of them either. We need a balanced approach to maximising the benefits and minimising the costs.
This Labour UK Government ended austerity with more money for public services in Scotland than ever before, and the biggest upgrade in workers' rights for a generation.
Now we are setting out targeted reforms which will help attract highly skilled individuals to drive innovation in Scotland's key sectors such as renewable energy, life sciences and technology.
We are also increasing the skills threshold for work visas to degree level – making sure skilled work truly means skilled work and ending the reliance on lower-skilled overseas labour that grew under the last UK Government.
We are also going to support refugees who have been officially granted protection status in the UK to apply for employment through existing worker routes where they have the skills to do so.
And we are enhancing the opportunities for exceptional talent to come to the UK, integrate and contribute to the economy.
We will increase the number of places for research interns, including those working in AI, make it simpler for top scientific and design talent to come to the UK, and reform the Innovator Founder visa to help international graduates build businesses in the UK – supercharging growth in our key industries.
Sadly, all of this is in sharp contrast with an SNP Scottish Government which is, as usual, moving fast on incendiary rhetoric but going slow on actually improving the lives of people in Scotland.
I suggest it is the lack of housing, college places, the poor connectivity and infrastructure, and long NHS waiting times – all the things the SNP Scottish Government are responsible for.
We want to see the Scottish Government step up and do more to support skills for working-class young people in Scotland.
Instead, college places are at their lowest level in a decade and facing further cuts from the SNP this year. Meanwhile, more than 1,300 kids – the equivalent of a full high school – left school last year with no qualifications to their name at all.
It is intolerable to me and to progressive politics that nearly one in six young people in Scotland are not in education, employment or training – while the SNP deny those young people those opportunities and merely say immigration will alleviate all of Scotland's ills.
Failing public services, a lack of investment, fewer opportunities for young people, increased net migration – all these issues combine to break down trust in the system.
All across the country, people are scunnered. A government of service to working people addresses those concerns; a government of service to its party will not.
Ian Murray is the Secretary of State for Scotland.