Scottish secretary says migrant workers cap should be raised

The visa cap on non-eu seasonal workers should be raised if the Home Office trial is a success, says Scottish Secretary David Mundell.

Mr Mundell also said the country could benefit from more than its proportional share of the new workforce. Earlier, a Tayside and Fife grower raised fears that Scotland will see none of the extra labour.

Mr Mundell said yesterday: “The way in which it will operate across the UK will depend on the applications, so it won’t be 10% for Scotland, it could be significantly more.

“I see it as a first step. If it is a successful pilot then we can move forward to increase the numbers.”

Asked if he pushed for a higher figure than the 2,500, Mr Mundell, who sits on Theresa May’s Cabinet, said: “We pushed very hard to get a pilot and to get the urgency of the issue and that’s why it will start at the beginning of the next season.”

Angus Growers, a group of farms located mainly in Perthshire, Fife and Angus, was 15% short of the 4,500-strong workforce it needs each season, leading to fruit rotting in fields.

William Houston, the general manager of the fruit producers, fears the fresh workforce will not make it north of the border, saying: “We are 400 miles further to come than Kent farmers. Kent could absorb all of them and still be needing more,” he said.

“There is a good possibility none of them will get this far north.”

The pool of EU workers has dried up in recent years in part because of improving Eastern European economies. Brexit has also been blamed for putting off potential recruits.

Mr Mundell said the non-eea workforce under the scheme is a new source of labour on top of what is already available on the continent.

The Tory MP added: “Under the transition arrangements that will operate until December 31 2020, EU nationals will still able to come to the UK exactly as they are able to do today.”

Perthshire grower Peter Thomson, of Thomas Thomson, welcomed the development, but feared it may be “too little, too late”.

Picture: Getty. Scottish Secretary David Mundell.