Scotland Swinney defends immigration as Reform rises in polls

Scotland needs immigration to bolster the size of its working-age population, the country’s first minister has said, mounting a forceful defence of diversity in the face of rising support for Reform before next May’s Holyrood elections.

- Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent

John Swinney was speaking at the end of a year marked by a significant shift in Scottish public sentiment, with Nigel Farage’s party securing 26% of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test.

Farage now polls higher in popularity than Keir Starmer, and Scotland has been forced to confront its prevailing self-image - heavily promoted by the SNP government - as a welcoming country in the face of protests outside asylum hotels and flag raising across the country.

“Of course I am concerned about it because I believe with every fibre of my body in the importance of inclusion within our society,” Swinney said. “During my lifetime Scotland has become a much more diverse country. I’m very proud of that, and I want to make sure that remains our fundamental outlook.”

As 750 of Reform UK’s Scottish supporters gather this weekend for an event with Farage, Swinney said he accepted that some “will be attracted by the absolutely core prejudicial message”.

But he argued that far-right views of the type expressed at some asylum accommodation protests - which have taken place in East Kilbride, Falkirk, Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness, where the UK government is converting a barracks to house asylum seekers - represented “a very, very small minority in Scotland” and suggested there was “quite a lot of travelling support” for Reform.