Starmer ‘walked into arms of Farage’ with immigration announcement – Swinney

The Prime Minister “walked right into the arms of Nigel Farage” with his immigration announcement on Monday, Scotland’s First Minister has said.

Sir Keir Starmer announced changes to the system on Monday in a Downing Street address, including making migrants wait 10 years rather than five to apply for settlement or citizenship, increasing required standards of English for those coming to the UK and tightening tests on colleges and universities offering places to foreign students.

Speaking to the media, the Prime Minister said the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers”.

But responding to his comments and the associated White Paper published on Monday, John Swinney accused the Prime Minister of being “terrified” of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage – a frequent critic of immigration policy.

“I think Keir Starmer walked right into the arms of Nigel Farage,” the First Minister told the PA news agency.

“Nigel Farage could have delivered that speech this morning.

“I can’t believe that Keir Starmer found himself able to deliver that speech which just totally contradicts everything he’s ever said in the past.

“He’s obviously terrified of Nigel Farage.”

The First Minister has put the perceived threat of Reform UK in Scotland – where the party seems on track to return up to a dozen MSPs in next year’s Holyrood elections if polls come to fruition – front and centre of his party’s campaign.

The SNP, the First Minister said, would “confront” Mr Farage, not “cosy up” to him.

Sir Keir’s announcement, where he said the new system would be “controlled, selective and fair”, would be “deeply damaging” for the Scottish economy, Mr Swinney claimed.

Scotland’s working age population has been declining in recent years as Scots get older and it is projected to fall further, with the SNP-led Scottish Government pushing for looser immigration rules north of the border.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has also suggested a need for at least partially different rules, similar to the Fresh Talent scheme put in place by the last Labour administration in Scotland.

The First Minister said: “There will be a huge impact on employment in the National Health Service and on social care.

“We struggle in Scotland to have a large enough working-age population.

“The announcements today from the UK Government are going to make that even more difficult and there’s going to be some significant opportunities lost for the Scottish economy by the implications of these announcements.

“For our universities, for example, where we were arguing for there to be greater flexibility applied for university students to be able to stay for longer when they come as international students and that opportunity will be lost.”

Under the plans, the length of time students are allowed to remain in the UK after their studies will be reduced from two years to 18 months.