THE polls may have narrowed dramatically, but if the Conservatives do win the General Election later this week, it will be Theresa May not Jeremy Corbyn who will be heading off to talks with the EU in a few days’ time and that means the whole of the UK is likely to be subjected to a hard Brexit. The Prime Minister has chosen to take the hard option – and reiterated her promise to cut immigration below 100,000 – largely because of opinion in her own party, but not only will it damage the British economy, it will be particularly disastrous for Scotland.
The latest to spell out the consequences is Dougie Adams, economic advisor to the influential Ernst and Young Scottish ITEM Club, who says any barriers to migration will be a headache for Scotland. Scotland does not have the migration seen in other parts of the UK, he says, but we need it more than them.
Mr Adams is also sceptical about the possibility of any bespoke deal for Scotland ¬ Theresa May appears hell bent on getting the number of migrants down, he says, which means a special arrangement for Scotland is unlikely to happen.
Even though there is a precedent for a special Scottish deal in the Fresh Talent initiative, which allowed students to stay on in Scotland for a time without a work permit, Mr Adams is right to be sceptical. Scotland needs a differentiated approach to migration post-Brexit because of our ageing profile; immigration has also helped to reverse a decline in our population. And yet Mrs May and the Brexit ministers have repeatedly said there will be one approach for the whole of the UK.
What this will mean in practice is that Scotland’s economic interests will be sacrificed to an anti-immigration ideology and a hard Brexit. Mr Adams has raised some questions about how a special deal could be policed, but there is still time to negotiate a separate immigration policy for Scotland that would allow it to set its own priorities. The UK Government still appears determined to drive through a hard Brexit, but it must not be allowed to damage Scotland’s economic interests.
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