IMMIGRATION Minister Caroline Nokes must answer for a Home Office dismissal of MSPs, a Scottish Government minister says.
Today The National told how the Westminster department will no longer deal with MSPs trying to help members of the public with immigration problems.
An official letter to Fulton MacGregor MSP said Home Secretary Sajid Javid will now work only with MPs.
READ: Home Office tells MSPs: We won't talk to you about immigration cases
The message came as MacGregor, who represents Coatbridge and Chryston, continued to help local mother Olya Merry, who was earlier this year given seven days to leave her Scots-born daughter Milana and husband Derek in the UK.
Officials told her to return to Belarus but, thanks to efforts from MacGregor, MP Hugh Gaffney, the Scottish Government and a 50,000-signature public petition, she has now been given a residency permit.
In the letter, a member of the UK Visas and Immigration team stated that the Home Secretary "takes the view that, as immigration is a matter reserved for the Westminster Parliament, engagement with Westminster MPs on constituents' immigration cases is the most appropriate route to follow".
It goes on: "MP account management teams will not respond to any immigration matters about individuals that you might raise."
MacGregor branded the move – revealed after a highly critical report on relations between London and devolved parliaments – a "disgrace", adding that it "shows the contempt in which the Scottish Parliament is held by the UK Government".
READ: Hundreds protest against asylum seeker evictions
Now Migration Minister Ben Macpherson is to press Home Office minister Nokes for answers.
In a statement to The National, he said: "It is surely right that people in Scotland can choose to be represented by their MSP should they wish.
“To dismiss such representation demonstrates a lack of respect from the Home Office for democratically elected members of the Scottish Parliament, and reinforces the criticism from the Public Accounts Committee that 'Whitehall still operates extensively on the basis of a structure and culture which take little account of the realities of devolution in the UK' and I will raise this issue with the UK Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes.”
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