SCOTLAND is becoming more intolerant as “toxicity” as debates on immigration grow, Humza Yousaf warned today.

The former first minister made the remarks as part of BBC Radio Four’s Scotland Wants You documentary, which questions whether Scotland is more open to migrants than other parts of Britain.

The documentary draws on research from the Migration Policy Scotland think tank, which indicates attitudes to immigration are “cooling.”

It comes after separate findings in the Diffley Partnership and the David Hume Institute’s Understanding Scotland Economy Tracker showed that immigration had entered Scots’ top five concerns for the first time. 

Mr Yousaf, who suffered relentless racial attacks before, during and after his year as first minister, told the BBC’s Nick Eardley: “The idea we’re all Jock Tamson’s Bairns is a very nice soundbite, and one that I’ve used on plenty of occasions in the past.

“We use these soundbites to perhaps mask the fact that people have genuine concerns about immigration — but I would suggest misplaced concerns.

“I have to say, in recent months and over the past couple of years, it is a feeling that the toxicity of the debate around immigration and multiculturalism has managed to find its way up here.

“Scotland I’m afraid, of course, is becoming more intolerant — both in the public space and frankly I’ve seen some of that intolerance in the political space too.”

Sarah Kyambi of the Migration Policy Scotland think tank, which spoke with 2,300 people across Scotland on the subject in February of last year, told the programme: “Scottish attitudes to immigration are cooling.

“More people want to see the level of immigration reduced than they did last year or the year before.

“That cooling is from a point when we first started the survey — a point when the largest cohort in our survey wanted to see an increase in immigration.

“But now the level of support for immigration reduction are increasing.

“I think there is a narrative about where Scotland sits on immigration that I worry leads to a kind of complacency.

“The idea that there is an inherent greater positivity among the Scottish policy towards immigration is likely to be mistaken.”

The documentary airs on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds on Sunday at 1.30pm.