Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West election candidates on immigration

SNP candidate Ronnie Cowan, Scottish Labour candidate Martin McCluskey, Scottish Conservative and Unionist candidate Ted Runciman, Scottish Liberal Democrats candidate Ross Stalker and independent John Burleigh took part in the event, which was organised by Inverclyde Christian Initiative.

The five candidates are among the eight in total who are running to be elected as Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West’s MP on July 4.

Speaking on the issue of immigration, Conservative candidate Ted Runciman said: “I’m not against immigration at all, but we have to control it.

“We have to figure out how we can process people wishing to come to Scotland and the UK in a far better and quicker manner.

“I think that we need to look at how we can speed up the process.

“Yes, we also need to try and stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming into the country so that we have a better chance to look at the ones we are looking for, the ones that we need, and when once they’re here help them to get through to British citizenship.”

Independent candidate John Burleigh called the issue of migration a ‘hot potato’ and added: “One of my thoughts on this is that they keep going on about the migrants coming over the English Channel, to me it’s not just down to those who are supplying the boats but those who are getting into the boats.

“They are both committing a criminal act because they are trying to get into the country illegally and I think both should be treated in that regard.”

His comments drew a firm response from Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate Ross Stalker, who criticised the UK’s existing asylum system.

He said: “We don’t accept asylum claims at embassies, the only way to make an asylum claim is to get to the border on the UK side, so you either do that by getting into a small boat or if you’re lucky you might be able to lie on a visa application so you can fly into the UK.

“The UK Government will not give you a visa if they believe you’re coming to the UK to seek asylum.

“That is why they enter illegally, because we give them no other way to legally claim asylum.

“If people have valid asylum claims then we should actually provide a safe and legal route for them to submit their claim.”

SNP candidate Ronnie Cowan also took aim at the country’s immigration system.

He said: “Part of the problem is that people accept white immigrants, but because of the colour of somebody’s skin they think ‘oh what’s that black person doing here?’.

“That’s appalling in this day and age that we still judge people based on the colour of their skin and part of the kickback against immigration is based on that.

“The Home Office immigration system is an absolute shambles and that is at the heart of this problem, if we were processing people and going through the paperwork with them in a timely fashion a lot of this heartache would be avoided.

“We don’t have a system which is fit for purpose and because of that people are having to take to boats and they’re being exploited by people traffickers.”

Labour candidate Martin McCluskey highlighted the success of recent programmes aimed at helping asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

He added: “We need to support people who are fleeing countries and work out how we can make their lives better.

“In terms of asylum in this country when people arrive here, we’ve seen the consequences of it in terms of the hotels.

“People are being accommodated in terrible conditions, doubling up in hotel rooms, these are vulnerable people sometimes with significant mental health issues who really need support.

“That’s why I’m quite pleased with the manifesto that Labour’s produced which says that we will end the use of hotels for asylum, which is the right thing to do, properly accommodate people and make sure that we use the money from the awful Rwanda scheme and cancelling it to employ more caseworkers to clear the asylum backlog.”