Tories accused of ‘dog whistle attack on asylum seekers’ in Budget debate

The Scottish Conservatives have been accused of a “dog whistle attack on asylum seekers” during a debate on the Scottish Government’s Budget.

The party tabled a motion widely opposing the tax and spending plans of John Swinney’s administration, which included condemnation of the Government’s plan to reinstate its policy of giving free bus travel to asylum seekers.

The party’s opposition to the policy was heavily trailed and drew criticism from the First Minister and a joint intervention from the Scottish Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland.

However, the issue rarely featured in the contribution to Wednesday’s debate of Tory finance spokesman Craig Hoy, who focused more on the party’s opposition to other proposals in the Budget, including the contention that the Government did not go far enough on rates relief.

In his only mention of the policy, Mr Hoy said: “We should be looking to save £2 million for free bus travel for asylum seekers this year if at the same time the SNP is taking the winter fuel payment off our pensioners.”

Opening her speech, Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: “I know there are members of the Conservative benches who deeply value all the communities they represent and will deplore the terms of the Tory motion today.

“Knowing those individuals, I do not believe for one moment they condone the Farage-esque dog whistle attack on asylum seekers that is at the rotten core of today’s Tory motion.”

Ms Robison was also among a number of MSPs who accused the Tories of attempting to appeal to voters who may be toying with the idea of supporting Reform UK in the 2026 Holyrood election, with the Nigel Farage-led party surging in recent polls.

Scottish Labour finance spokesman Michael Marra, appearing enraged by the inclusion of asylum seeker bus travel in the motion, repeatedly rejected Tory attempts to intervene during his speech and offered his “full throated agreement” with Ms Robison.

“Seeking to pit one vulnerable group against another in our society is simply unacceptable,” he said.

“It’s the kind of politics that says ‘I can only get on if others do not’ and that is the politics that I entirely reject.”

“Asylum seekers are some of the most vulnerable people in our society, they have fled unimaginable situations of war, famine and persecution.

“They are not political pawns to be used by the Tory Party to try to outflank Reform on the right.”

Ross Greer, the Scottish Green finance spokesman, described the motion as “nasty and desperate”.

He went on to accuse the Tories of attempting to “sow division between ordinary people, that is their ethos, because they exist to protect the interests of those who are really at fault”.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the motion was “thoroughly depressing”.

He added: “I look across at the Conservative benches and I see a number of parliamentarians I respect very greatly, who often raise the standard of public debate in this place.

“I can’t believe this motion was drafted in their name today and I hope they take a long, hard look at themselves, because if there weren’t so much to refute in this motion, if there wasn’t so much to debate against it, I wouldn’t really want to give it the time of day, so shrivelled and miserly it is.

“It is possible to argue against the policy with decency, without ‘condemning it’ as the Conservative motion proposes to do, especially when we are discussing a group of people who the Scottish Refugee Council tell us may be living on as little as £1.36.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the First Minister was asked by journalists about the debate, which he described as an “enormous regret”.