Why Labour must walk a particularly fine line on immigration in Scotland
In the face of a resurgent Reform UK, asylum and migration will be a key battleground in Scottish Parliament election
Shabana Mahmood will today set out sweeping reforms to the asylum system in response to apparently widespread and growing concerns that the government is not in control of immigration.
Warning that illegal migration is “tearing our country apart”, the Home Secretary will pledge to end Britain’s “golden ticket” status for asylum seekers by forcing people arriving illegally to wait 20 years, instead of five, before they can apply for permanent settlement.
She will also announce refugee status will become temporary, and state that those whose countries of origin have become safe will immediately be made to return home.
The changes for new arrivals – heralded as the largest overhaul of the system since the Second World War – also include reviews of refugee status to be carried out every 30 months.
This will seem like unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory for many within Labour.
Indeed, Scottish Labour MP Brian Leishman has already described the Home Office reforms as not “real Labour values”. The Alloa and Grangemouth MP only had the party whip restored earlier this month but indicated he is prepared to lose it again. “We are talking about the most endangered people in the world coming over in small boats or on the bottom of trucks, and we need to build a society that looks after them,” he said. No doubt many of Mr Leishman’s colleagues on the Labour backbenches feel the same way.
After new figures revealed the UK reached a record high number of asylum applications in the year to June 2025, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer must walk a fine line between keeping his own MPs on side and convincing the electorate his administration is making meaningful progress in tackling the issue.
In Scotland, Labour’s need to be sure-footed is all the more pressing, with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK ahead in the polls going into next May’s Holyrood vote. With the SNP accusing Labour of “dancing to Nigel Farage’s tune”, immigration will play a far bigger role in this Scottish Parliament election than it has ever done before.
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