ANAS Sarwar has been slammed for defending the UK Government’s hostile immigration plans that will “devastate” Scotland’s care sector.
The SNP criticised the Scottish Labour leader after he told BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s sweeping crackdown on migration is “brave”.
It comes after Scottish Care boss Donald Macaskill said he was “deeply concerned” about the impact Labour’s proposals will have, and that they will “deter much-needed talent from staying in Scotland”.
On Sunday, Sarwar said that if the UK doesn’t “confront that broken immigration system, we are not going to get the results that we want”.
“So I actually think it was very brave of our UK Labour Home Secretary to say – yes, we're going to make it harder and create disincentives for people who want to illegally cross the channel, but at the same time we do have to open up more safe and legal routes for genuine asylum seekers and refugees to come to this country.
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"You would not have heard a Tory Home Secretary say that, you certainly wouldn't hear a Reform Home Secretary say that.”
He added that when it came to the social care sector there should be a “balanced approach”.
Sarwar said: “Yes, it is true that we will need short term legal migration in order to fill the gaps that exist in our social care sector, but if we are to truly transform our social care sector, then it needs adequate investment from a Scottish Government.
“That's something I will deliver, but it also needs fair pay for our social care workforce.”
Pointing to the campaign for social care workers to be paid £15 an hour, Sarwar said that now needs to go “even further and faster”.
He added: “I don't think it's acceptable that we pay our social care workers, one of the most important jobs in the country, poverty wages which means we are then over reliant on migrants to come and fill those jobs.
“Let's give people the skills they need. Let's pay them properly. Let's make an attractive profession for people in this country so we can have a social care system.”
It comes after Scottish Care boss Macaskill said that Mahmood’s plans to make legal migrants wait a longer period before being able to permanently settle in the UK will have a “profoundly negative impact” on the sector.
The Home Secretary is proposing that workers on a post-Brexit health and social care visa wait 15 years before permanent settlement. The current wait period is five years.
"Forcing dedicated care workers to wait up to 15 years for settlement, and tying their future to restrictive criteria, will deter much-needed talent from staying in Scotland,” Macaskill said.
In October, John Swinney announced that the Scottish Government will sponsor “displaced” international care workers to come to Scotland, after the UK Government shut down the Social Care Visa Route entirely in July 2025.
SNP MSP Emma Harper said: “Scotland’s social care sector is already facing acute staff shortages due to hostile and restrictive migration policies from successive UK governments desperate to dance to Nigel Farage’s toxic tune on immigration.
“The proposals outlined this week by the Labour Home Secretary will only make the situation worse.
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“Despite warnings about the devastating impact of the changes from experts in Scotland’s care sector, Anas Sarwar has once again shown that he has no solutions and will always put standing up for his London bosses ahead of Scotland’s needs.
“Scotland’s care sector needs international workers.
"That’s why the SNP has put in place measures to help social care workers who have been displaced to come to Scotland and contribute to our care sector.
“What Scotland really needs is a fresh start with independence so that we can shape a migration system that meets Scotland’s needs and values rather than those of politicians hundreds of miles away in Westminster.”
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