Leader comment: A problem that transcends politics

The SNP’s concerns over slowing population growth are about more than independence or the Union.

Doubtless, many will be tempted to dismiss SNP concerns about slow population growth as yet another attempt to use the issue of Brexit in order to score political points. To do so would be a mistake.

The Nationalists’ suggestion that Scotland needs more powers to avoid what they describe as a “demographic crisis” should not cloud the view of even their fiercest opponents.

The truth is that concerns about the implications of an ageing Scottish population existed long before the SNP took power at Holyrood in 2007.

Labour First Minister Jack McConnell expended a great deal of energy in trying to encourage immigration to Scotland. Picture: TSPL

Labour First Minister Jack McConnell expended a great deal of energy in trying to encourage immigration to Scotland. Quite rightly, he saw that an expanding elderly population would require a greater number of people of working age to maintain necessary services. There was no point, hereckoned, in promising to deliver key policies such as free personal care for all if the numbers could not be made to add up.

And the way to make those numbers add up was to ensure a growing, tax-paying workforce. This logic led to the launch of the Fresh Talent Initiative, a welcome drive to attract more skilled workers to Scotland. Yesterday, the SNP claimed that Scotland’s population would be six million – an increase of 9 per cent – if growth kept step with other small European nations. Instead, restrictions on freedom of movement brought about by the UK’s decision to leave the EU will mean population growth slows.

There is a bitter irony in the fact that many of those who were persuaded, by scaremongering over immigrants, to vote Leave in 2016’s referendum would be able to expect better services in old age if more people were, in fact, able to come to Scotland and contribute to the economy. Skilled immigrants are vital if services are to be sustained and the economy grown.

Unsurprisingly, the SNP sees independence as the solution. But this may not – indeed, should not – be the only answer.

The Scottish Government should continue to make its pro-immigration case under the current constitutional settlement. And politicians across the mainstream should do more to promote the value of immigration rather than pandering to those on the fringes who caricature it as something that harms rather than helps fund public services.