SNP blame '˜toxic' Tory Government for stirring up anti-immigrant feeling

The 'toxic' Tory Government has been blamed by the SNP for stirring up anti-immigrant feeling in working-class people through a lack of public investment.

The party’s justice and home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry said the Conservative administration had “created a great deal of poverty” through its policies.

She said: “I notice as I travel round provincial England that the infrastructure is not in such good condition as it is in Scotland.

“No social housing has been built here for years, in contrast we’re building a lot of social housing in Scotland.

SNP's justice and home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

“I think many working-class people in England have been led to believe that the cause of their woes; the fact they can’t get a house, the fact they can’t get a well-paid job - OK they can get a job but not a properly paid job.

“They’ve been led to believe that’s the fault of the immigrants. When it’s the fault of this toxic Conservative Government.”

Ms Cherry (Edinburgh South West), was speaking on the second day of the debate on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, which is focused on security and immigration.

She criticised how the Withdrawal Agreement was put together, saying Scotland had been “cut out of the negotiations”.

And she said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s offer of a “differentiated deal” for the country, which would allow it to stay in the EU single market, had been “completely ignored”.

Ms Cherry added: “My point is that Scotland’s marginalisation and it’s very weak bargaining position within the union that is the United Kingdom has been very exposed by Brexit.”

“The Brexit process has told Scottish voters a lot about the reality of devolution and that power devolved is indeed power retained and that the United Kingdom is not the union of equals we were told it was before 2014 but a unitary state were devolved power is retrieved to the centre when convenient”, she said.

The SNP frontbencher wound up by saying the United Kingdom was “not a union which Scotland can continue to function properly in” as she advocated for another independence referendum.