PM's ‘fearful undertones' on immigration ‘dog whistle to voters', Yousaf warns
In a speech used to announce a series of immigration reforms, Sir Keir Starmer earlier this week warned the UK risks becoming an 'island of strangers' if controls on those entering the country are not tightened.
Number 10 has already rejected claims that the remarks echoed those in Enoch Powell's infamous 1968 'rivers of blood' speech.
But Mr Yousaf insisted it had 'the same fearful undertones', as he argued that migrants are the people who 'keep Britain afloat'.
In a piece written for LBC, the former SNP leader said: 'Starmer's invocation of 'strangers' is a modern echo – a dog whistle to voters who blame migrants for every social ill, from stretched public services to the cost-of-living crisis.
'It betrays a failure to understand, or deliberately mask, the fact that Britain's prosperity depends on migration, on openness – not building walls.'
Mr Yousaf, who described himself as being the 'proud grandson of immigrants', launched the attack days after the UK Government unveiled plans that will mean those coming to Britain will have to wait 10 years to apply for settled status, instead of five.
Other changes will mean a higher standard of English will be required for those seeking to come to the UK, while ministers will also end overseas recruitment for care home workers.
Under the Tories, nearly one million people came to the UK from overseas between 2019 and 2023.
My Labour government is taking back control of our borders. pic.twitter.com/A5Rf4InhNb
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 12, 2025
Mr Yousaf said that the Prime Minister's speech had 'underlined a lamentable truth', that 'the Labour Party has become so desperate to stem the decline in their polling, they haven't just lurched to the right, but are comfortable embracing rhetoric once confined to the hardest edges of the Conservative Party and now central to Nigel Farage's Reform Party'.
Stressing the importance of immigrants to the UK, the former SNP leader that in England 'roughly 35% of doctors are non-British', adding that these people 'save lives on a daily basis'.
He also noted more than 10,000 social care staff in Scotland have come from overseas, adding that 'every major sector' in the economy 'relies on migrants to plug chronic skills gaps'.
As such, Mr Yousaf told the Prime Minister: 'Denigrate immigrants as 'strangers' and you undermine and repel the very people who keep Britain afloat.'
With Anas Sarwar having agreed that migration must come down 'across the board', Mr Yousaf hit out at the Scottish Labour leader for having 'slavishly' fallen into line behind the Prime Minister.
Mr Yousaf said: 'Under current rules, neither Sarwar's father nor my own would have been allowed into the UK to build prosperous lives, not only for their own families but for the hundreds, if not thousands, of people they have employed over the years.'
The former SNP leader added: 'Sarwar's promise of standing up to Starmer and up for Scotland is rightly ridiculed, and as I suspect Anas will find out, the people of Scotland see right through it.
'He has sat silent as Starmer betrayed Waspi women, cut the Winter Fuel Allowance, slashed disability support, and now threatens our country's prosperity – all to try and pander to Reform voters.'
Recalling that he had been first minister of Scotland at a time when Rishi Sunak was prime minister and Sadiq Khan was London Mayor, Mr Yousaf insisted: 'We should feel a sense of pride that in Britain at one time we had a Muslim Mayor of London, Hindu PM, and Scottish-Pakistani first minister.
'That is a blueprint for other nations on how multiculturalism has been a success, not a failure.'
He praised his successor John Swinney, for his 'leadership' on such issues and for 'condemning Reform's vile rhetoric and standing firmly for inclusive values'.
Mr Yousaf added: 'If only more politicians had such conviction, we would not be on the brink of possibly handing the keys of No 10 to Nigel Farage.'
However a spokesperson for the Scottish Labour leader told LBC that the 'desperate attack' from Mr Yousaf 'deliberately misunderstands and misrepresents Anas Sarwar's position on a number of issues'.
The spokesperson said: 'It is possible to celebrate the positive impact of immigration and diaspora communities in our society, while believing we need a managed and controlled immigration system. To pretend otherwise only helps right-wing politicians to use the issue to divide our communities.
'It is worth remembering that Humza Yousaf is a former health secretary and former first minister who helped create a social care crisis in Scotland by breaking the system, cutting budgets for councils, failing to workforce plan, and delivering chronically low pay and conditions for care workers.'
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