The hypocrisy of the SNP over immigration is finally laid bare

Telegraph

03-04-2025

There is nothing like a dose of reality to shake the politically idealistic out of their fanciful notions.
Take Glasgow, for example.
The SNP administration in Scotland's largest city wants the minister responsible for asylum to consider a pause to the asylum dispersal scheme. This sees large numbers of applicants for refugee status arriving there every year.
This, according to Councillor Allan Casey, Glasgow City Council's convener for homelessness, is 'damaging social cohesion' and placing unbearable pressure on the city's social housing supply.
It's quite the reversal for a party that has dined out for years on its claim to be progressive and welcoming of immigration to Scotland.
Indeed, one of the major planks of the independence project is the claim that Scots are far more tolerant of diversity and multiculturalism than their counterparts south of the border.
Being Scottish doesn't just mean being angry all the time – it means being a better person. Better than the English, anyway.
Yet here we are, with an SNP-controlled local authority suddenly being forced to confront the consequences of its own policies.
That's what happens when you succeed in your electoral aims: you discover that governing, even at a local level, isn't quite as easy as it looks from the opposition benches.
But the nationalist councillors of Glasgow have learned much by the example of their colleagues in the Scottish Parliament. It was often claimed that governing would mould the SNP into a more realistic party that accepted the limitations imposed on it by the responsibilities of office.
That hasn't quite worked out in Scotland, where every difficulty besetting the SNP government is quickly blamed on big bad Westminster, the source of all of Scotland's woes (and also much of its money, but that's another story).
Similarly, Councillor Casey, rather than accept any responsibility for the difficulties his administration has created for the people it's supposed to represent, has fired off a letter to the minister, Angela Eagle, criticising 'the system you are presiding over'. You see what he did there?
The problems associated with being a welcoming place for asylum seekers did not begin with this administration, which has only been in office since 2017.
It started with its well-intentioned Labour predecessor at the end of the last century, when Glasgow volunteered to become the only Scottish local authority willingly taking part in the Home Office's asylum seeker dispersal programme.
This was aimed at reducing the pressure on scarce accommodation and local services in the south east of England.
Despite the SNP's insistence that it welcomed asylum seekers in principle – some of its best friends were asylum seekers, no doubt – no SNP-council chose to follow Glasgow's lead. And they can hardly be blamed.
There were positive consequences of the new arrivals on the city: their children proved hard-working and motivated, and in many areas school exam results improved after asylum seekers arrived in their communities.
But the down sides were more rarely discussed. While the city received extra money from the government to pay for accommodation, the cost in other areas had to be funded by existing council tax-payers.
The costs of translation services, for example, rocketed along with the workloads of already under-pressure social workers.
In November 2023, Glasgow City Council declared a housing emergency as applications for accommodation outstripped the number of homes available.
The council stated: 'In these circumstances, if accommodation is required then what will be provided will be temporary and is unlikely to be of the type or in the location requested.'
It added: 'Regrettably, this means that even people in great need often face a delay of a several years before they get a permanent house or flat.'
In this context, it's little wonder that councillors fear for the integrity of 'social cohesion' from the continuing flow of asylum seekers into the city, where 4100 of the 6735 available bed spaces are currently occupied by those awaiting asylum decisions.
There is another layer to the SNP's blatant hypocrisy on this issue. In May 2021, police and immigration enforcement officers were physically prevented from removing two illegal immigrants living in Glasgow: a mob surrounded the van containing the two arrested men, who were subsequently released.
SNP ministers at the time welcomed this example of mob rule, implying that no one should be removed from the country just because they have no legal right to be here.
Councillor Casey might consider becoming a trailblazer for his party by actually considering the consequences of the SNP's bluster and virtue-signalling.
He might perhaps replace it with a hard-nosed acceptance that immigration rules need to be enforced, and that declaring that all refugees are welcome has real-life consequences for the lives and wallets of everyone else in the community.