Labour to consider partial devolution of asylum powers

Jeremy Corbyn

However, Mr Corbyn and his Scottish counterpart Richard Leonard ruled out the full devolution of asylum and immigration, as backed by the SNP.

Mr Corbyn said: “I’m open to the idea that we would look very carefully at the administration of the housing issues, the support issues, the education issues. [We] will certainly be having that discussion both with Scottish Labour and with Welsh Labour.

“I want us to have an asylum policy that works in a humane, decent and effective way. At the moment we don’t have that at all. We have a hostile environment which is so damaging to people’s lives.”

Mr Leonard suggested that the Scottish Parliament could have some control over employment law for asylum seekers in order to address regional labour shortages.

He said: “We need to have a mature discussion about how we tackle regional or labour-market issues, not least post-Brexit, so I think there’s a debate to be had. I think there are disadvantages about it as well so I don’t think it’s as straightforward as the SNP have made it out to be.

“I don’t think we’ve said our last word on it; I think it’s something we would keep under consideration not least in the light of Brexit. But, as things stand, Labour as a party is not in favour of the devolution of immigration policy.”