TORY plans to cut net immigration in the UK to less than 100,000 a year could cost Scotland £10 billion a year in the long term, the Finance Secretary has warned.

Derek Mackay hit out at Westminster’s commitment to reduce the overall number of people coming to the UK, saying that “the right-wing Brexit madness of the hardliners in the Conservative Party sets the immigration policies of this country”.

Figures earlier this year showed net migration to the UK from the European Union has fallen to the lowest level in nearly five years, with an estimated 90,000 more long-term EU migrants arriving in Britain than left in the 12 months to September 2017.

But an SNP-commissioned report on Scotland’s economy highlighted the need for the country to attract more workers as part of efforts to support an increasingly elderly population.

The Sustainable Growth Commission said an independent Scotland could have a new visa system, as well as a “Come to Scotland” package of incentives to attract people.

Mackay (pictured) said the commission had set the target for Scotland “to be the most talent-friendly country in the world”. Mackay spoke of the “enormous benefits to Scotland’s economy, demography and society that migration offers us”.

He added that a new system tailored to the country’s needs could “help realise those benefits”.

SNP backbencher Ivan McKee pressed Mackay on the issue at Holyrood ahead of the “impending economic disaster” of Brexit.

“The damage to be inflicted on the UK and Scottish economies by the imminent chaotic Brexit cliff edge is well understood,” McKee said. Mackay told him: “I would absolutely agree with that.”

The Finance Secretary added: “A scenario where net migration in the UK was reduced to the tens of thousands, an aspiration of the Conservative Government, would mean Scotland would lose over £10 billion a year in GDP by 2040.”

Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Greens co-convener, pressed Mackay on the report as he said: “Everyone who has a shred of human decency wants to see an end to the hostile environment on immigration that has been deliberately cultivated by the UK Government.”

But Harvie asked if there was not a contradiction in the report between the general emphasis on “wanting Scotland to be an open and welcoming country and the proposal merely to reduce to £75,000, rather than abolish, the investment threshold for the issuing of visas?”.

He asked: “Surely we have a choice: we can be that open, welcoming country, or we can sell visas to the wealthy.”

Mackay said Harvie made “a fair point”. He replied: “It is not just about needing entrepreneurs and experts, although we absolutely need them; it is about wanting to be as welcoming a country as possible.

“That includes welcoming students and welcoming doctors, who are being denied access by the UK Government. It includes welcoming a host of people into our society and our country.”