Delegates barrack one member over his ‘Neanderthals’ remark

An SNP member bemoaned the “Neanderthals” crossing the English border into Scotland in an anti-immigration rant at the party’s conference.

A delegate who identified himself as Pete from Helensburgh branch said it is the flow of people from England rather than the rest of the EU that is piling pressure on public services in Scotland.

His comments were met with mutterings of disapproval from the audience at a fringe event on immigration at the SNP’s gathering in Glasgow yesterday.

“We have got so many people coming into this country,” the Helensburgh member told the CityUK panel, which included Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

“I’m not saying even from the European Union. I’m talking about the Neanderthals coming and moving across the border from the south. It is putting pressure on our health service, our education service.

To sighs and tuts, he added: “I have got nothing against immigration.

“My brother runs a business and he has got 50 people and they are all Poles, working for him. Two interpreters and the rest don’t speak the language and they still get the job done.

“So let’s try and do it and get Scotland back on the move again.”

Mr Swinney used the fringe event to make a fresh call for immigration to be devolved to Holyrood.

“To hear the prime minister of the UK celebrating the end of free movement as something resembling a virtue is something I find profoundly depressing,” he told delegates.

“It flies in the face of all progressive, economic rationale that any sensible individual would consider to be correct for the times.”