Scotland’s far-left Housing Minister has claimed that the country needs more immigration in a debate ahead of the upcoming elections for the locally devolved parliament.
Immigration has shot to the forefront of the May 7th race for control of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, as the leftist Scottish National Party (SNP) Housing Minister Mairi McAllan declared that Scotland is receiving “too few” migrants and that more should be imported to bolster the economy.
Appearing on a debate held on BBC Scotland, she added that Scotland is a “welcoming nation” and that immigration is “good for our economy, necessary for our economy, for our hospitality sector, health and social care, and our businesses.”
“Difficulties have been inflamed, they have been exploited, they have been exploited by the parties sitting next to me here, which I think has created an atmosphere of fear,” she added.
Reform UK Glasgow City Councillor Thomas Kerr said that the system is at a “breaking point” and that “enough is enough” with mass migration, pointing to the housing crisis in his city, which he claimed has been exacerbated by the SNP government’s asylum policies.
According to council statistics from March, Glasgow currently houses 9,337 homeless people in temporary accommodation. Out of that, 5,948 were classified as “refugees”, many of whom are being housed in hotels at taxpayer expense.
The scheme of housing migrants in hotels has come with some instances of violence, including in 2020 when a Sudanese national, Badreddin Abadlla Adam, went on a stabbing spree at his Glasgow hotel, injuring six people, including a police officer. It was reported that migrant had been dissatisfied with the free food provided, as macaroni and cheese was not “culturally appropriate”.
According to a BBC Scotland News opinion poll earlier this year, immigration ranked fourth among voters’ most important issues, behind the cost of living, health care, and the economy.
The growing concern about the mass migration agenda in Scotland, which has resulted in around 10 per cent of the population being foreign-born, has bolstered support for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which has seen its poll ratings rise significantly.
After having won zero seats in the previous election, Reform currently stands tied for second place with the left-wing Labour Party, with both polling around 20 per cent.
The SNP is still the clear favourite at around 35 per cent; however, it remains to be seen if the leftist-separatist party will win enough votes to form a government on its own next month.