New immigration poll shows Scots at odds with John Swinney's push to welcome asylum seekers

Scottish voters also showed overwhelming support for stepping up a crackdown on illegal migration, with 60 per cent of those polled backing mass detentions and deportations.

John Swinney used a series of speeches at the start of this year to claim Scotland would benefit greatly from more immigration, citing the country’s declining birth rate and the ageing population.

As tensions grow outside asylum hotels in Scotland, the First Minister went as far as to brand a Conservative-led Holyrood immigration debate as “dehumanising” and “disgusting”, accusing Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay of “panicking about Reform”.

Conservative MSP Craig Hoy, who brought forward the debate, said rising tensions outside hotels housing illegal migrants was “the product of the failure of politicians to address legitimate community concerns”.

With Scottish Labour stumbling through yet another scandal this weekend with the suspension of MSP Foysol Choudhury pending an inappropriate conduct investigation, the SNP remains on course to win a fifth term governing Scotland by a comfortable margin.

The poll showing Reform moving above Labour to second place in Holyrood voting intentions has provided further grim reading at the Labour conference in Liverpool, but Sir John Curtice calculated Labour would still return one more MSP thanks to regional list seats.

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He said: “In response to a similarly worded question, in 2018 YouGov found that 39 per cent reckoned immigration into Scotland was too high; now the figure stands at 56 per cent.

“However, those who voted SNP last year are least likely to feel that immigration is too high — only 36 per cent express that view.”

The Strathclyde University politics professor concluded that in the event Reform successfully makes its case for Holyrood next year, the other unionist parties would lose out.

Nigel Farage, who recently called Glasgow the “asylum capital of the UK”, predicted immigration would inevitably become a significant issue on the doorstep as we approach the May 2026 election.

Glasgow City Council was forced to revoke its own status as an asylum dispersal city after 26 years when Yvette Cooper failed to engage with discussions over the city’s overwhelmed homeless services.

In August, Reform unveiled its first MSP of this parliamentary term: Graham Simpson, the third MSP to defect from the Scottish Conservatives.

Reacting to the Norstat poll, he told GB News: “It is quite clear that the majority of Scots share our view that immigration levels are too high and that those who are here illegally should be deported.

“The SNP are out of touch and out of step with Scotland on this, and it is costing the country, with councils crying out for help as they cope with the influx.

He adds that Reform’s unwavering stance on immigration is the reason why “increasing numbers of Scots are supporting us”.

The Norstat poll also tackled the question of independence, concluding 53 per cent of the 1,010 Scots polled looking to break off from the rest of the United Kingdom.

Another marginal tilting of the scales over the constitutional question is far from the “demonstrable support” for independence John Swinney has set out to achieve, but it’s not the first time support for independence has topped support for the union in a poll this summer.

In June, support for Scottish autonomy rose to 54 per cent, a repeat of the highest recorded statistic.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed last week that another referendum “won’t happen” during his time in Downing Street, regardless of the size of a pro-independence majority elected to Holyrood in 2026.