THERESA May’s “shambolic” Tory Government is holding Scotland back, Nicola Sturgeon will tell delegates at the SNP conference this afternoon.

The First Minister will close the party’s gathering in Aberdeen with an attack on the UK’s “hostile” immigration policy, criticising the UK Government over the case of Denzel Darku, a student nurse who moved from Ghana to the UK when he was a teenager, and who was, until recently, threatened with deportation.

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Sturgeon is expected to tell the party faithful: “Westminster’s hostile environment to migration is not just a slogan. It is has a real impact on our public services and our economy.

“Since the Brexit vote there’s been a huge drop in the number of EU nurses registering in the UK.

“And until just two days ago, a young student nurse from Paisley, a former member of the Scottish Youth Parliament, Denzel Darku, was being threatened with deportation.

“At first sight that beggars belief, but then you realise it was just the Tories being true to form – hostile to migrants and neglecting the NHS.

“Scotland is a welcoming country – our prosperity and our public services depend on it.

“If Westminster cannot or will not act in our best interests, it is time that our own Parliament was able to do so. It’s time for powers over migration to come to Scotland.”

The SNP leader will also tell delegates: “While the shambolic Westminster Tory Government is holding Scotland back, the Scottish Government is moving Scotland forward.

“We are governing in tough times. The legacy of the recession and the continued reality of Westminster austerity challenges us every single day.

“In countries across the world, social democracy appears to be in retreat – and many long established political norms are in a state of flux.

“At times like these, and for parties like ours, two things are more important than ever. To focus on what makes a difference – not just now, but in the long term. And to stand up for what we believe in.”

Sturgeon is also due to announce a £70 million investment from the flagship £150m Building Scotland fund – the precursor to the Scottish National Investment Bank. The First Minister will tell the conference that £25m of that is to support at least 3000 new homes. To be clear – that’s 3000 new homes over and above our existing target of 50,000 affordable homes over this Parliament,”she is expected to say.

Meanwhile, opponents took aim at the First Minister, for struggling in a TV interview to remember the estimated cost of the transition to independence in the SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission report.

After the fourth time of being quizzed on the amount, Sturgeon told Channel 4 News’s Ciaran Jenkins that she couldn’t “recall the exact figure in the report”.

Andrew Wilson’s report suggested it would cost £450m to move from being part of the UK to being independent.

“It cost you £178 million to set up an IT system to pay farmers, that is almost your entire budget for setting up a new country,” Jenkins said.

Sturgeon said she had not come up with the figures produced by the Growth Commission.

“They are figures that a respected academic has come up with. Therefore I think they deserve to be treated seriously. But as I started to say at the outset of this line of questioning, we will go through a proper process as a party of analysing and interrogating and coming to our own conclusions about these things.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Tories said: “No wonder pro-independence supporters as well as pro-Union backers are running a mile from her independence blueprint. Everyone can see it doesn’t add up.”