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Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Friday the 25th of April, the government saw off an SNP attempt

to give the Scottish government power over immigration.

The SNPs, Pete Wishart, had an alarming message.

We're in trouble.

We're in real trouble in Scotland and this is why this bill is absolutely critical.

Pete Wishart was worried that falling birth rates and attempts to curb immigration were leaving the Scottish economy vulnerable.

He was speaking up for a bill from his colleague Stephen Gethens,

who said that sectors, including tourism, agriculture and care homes,

wanted a Scottish visa scheme to bring in much-needed workers.

And he quoted the Scottish Tourism Alliance.

Introducing a Scottish-specific visa scheme would not only match immigration to the demand for certain skills, again, as it has done for centuries, but we'd also encourage more people

to live and work in Scotland, particularly in rural and island communities that are experiencing

a drain in people of working age. But as a Conservative Harriet Cross reckoned the SNP's Scottish government's policies

might be putting people off living in Scotland. If we are encouraging people to live in Scotland

or rural Scotland in particular, how does the SNP suggest that's going to be achieved or happened

when, for example, anyone earning over £28,500 £1,000 in Scotland's paying more income tax.

A Labour MP Richard quickly thought allowing the Scottish government power over immigration

would have dramatic knock-on consequences for the rest of the UK.

If Scotland could be granted the power to admit migrants under its own criteria,

we're left with a host of unanswered questions.

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