THE care sector is facing a shortage of nearly half a million workers because of Westminster’s “insulting” immigration policy and funding failures, a leading union has warned.

The GMB spoke out as the SNP renewed calls for the Tories to match Scottish per capita NHS spending to give a £4 billion boost to health and social care funding.

Their demands have been made after a decade of Tory austerity that has seen public services take a severe hit, and after SNP MPs were excluded from voting on the NHS Funding Bill – despite NHS funding levels in England having a knock-on impact on Scotland’s Barnett formula grant.

SNP MP Dr Philippa Whitford said the increased funding could help NHS Scotland face the serious challenge posed by the covid-19 outbreak by having the staff, technology and resources to help save lives and prevent the spread of the disease, while still providing acute care to patients with other conditions.

Frontline Health funding in Scotland increased to record levels despite cuts to Scotland’s overall budget from Westminster that total £1.5bn in real terms between 2010/11 and 2019/20.

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The SNP Scottish Government has already abolished prescription charges, extended free personal care to all those under 65 who need it, delivered higher NHS staffing per head than NHS England, secured the highest number of GPs per head of population in the UK, and ensured Scotland’s core A&E services are still the best performing in the UK.

“While the SNP has been focussed on – and will continue to focus on – improving Scotland’s health service, the Tories are intent on damaging it with their bad Brexit deal, their disastrous immigration proposals and their desperate grovelling for a ‘trade deal at any price’ with Donald Trump,” said Whitford.

“The SNP Scottish Government has significantly raised funding to improve our NHS and extend social care to all those who need it. Meanwhile the Tories at Westminster have spent a decade drastically cutting social care funding and undermining the NHS in England with outsourcing, fragmentation and frozen budgets. If the UK Government matched Scottish NHS per capita funding then, through Barnett consequentials, this would allow the Scottish Government to increase health and social care funding in Scotland by over £4bn by the end of this UK Parliament.”

The GMB said that lack of funding and the UK Government’s immigration policy meant the care sector was “facing almost a 500,000-person black hole”.

Stuart McDonald MP, the SNP’s shadow immigration spokesperson, said the “regressive immigration plans” would have a “devastating impact”. “The care sector in the UK is valuable and the work its employees undertake cannot be taken for granted. It’s time the Tory Government woke up to the reality that its immigration plans will devastate Scotland and the UK and instead now work constructively with the devolved governments and business community on a migration system that works.”