Tories criticised over ‘Farage-esque’ debate on free bus travel for asylum seekers

They were also slammed by Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens during the debate.

Earlier in the day, the party were criticised in a rare joint intervention from the Scottish Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland.

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The party’s motion on last week’s budget condemned the funding, which they said “could have instead been used to provide 6,600 pensioners in Scotland with a full Winter Heating Payment.

In his opening speech during Thursday’s debate, Mr Hoy told MSPs: “We should be looking to save £2 million for free bus travel for asylum seekers this year if at the same time the SNP is taking the winter fuel payment off our pensioners.”

Opening her speech, Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: “I know there are members of the Conservative benches who deeply value all the communities they represent and will deplore the terms of the Tory motion today.

“Knowing those individuals, I do not believe for one moment they condone the Farage-esque dog whistle attack on asylum seekers that is at the rotten core of today’s Tory motion or Craig Hoy’s description of our important equality work as woke.

“It’s frankly embarrassing.”

Scottish Labour finance spokesman Michael Marra was lived. He repeatedly rejected Tory attempts to intervene during his speech and offered his “full-throated agreement” with Ms Robison.

“Seeking to pit one vulnerable group against another in our society is simply unacceptable,” he said.

“It’s the kind of politics that says ‘I can only get on if others do not’ and that is the politics that I entirely reject.”

“Asylum seekers are some of the most vulnerable people in our society, they have fled unimaginable situations of war, famine and persecution.

“They are not political pawns to be used by the Tory Party to try to outflank Reform on the right.”

Ross Greer, the Scottish Green finance spokesman, described the motion as “nasty and desperate”.

“That is the ethos of the Conservative Party. To sow division between ordinary people and that’s their ethos because they exist to protect the interests of those who are really at fault,” he added.

“The enemies of ordinary people, Scottish or British, don’t arrive by dinghy at Dover, they arrive in this country by private jet.

“And the Tory party has always been ready to stand in service of those real villains, not the general public.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the motion was “thoroughly depressing”.

He added: “I look across at the Conservative benches and I see a number of parliamentarians I respect very greatly, who often raise the standard of public debate in this place.

“I can’t believe this motion was drafted in their name today and I hope they take a long, hard look at themselves, because if there weren’t so much to refute in this motion, if there wasn’t so much to debate against it, I wouldn’t really want to give it the time of day, so shrivelled and miserly it is.

“It is possible to argue against the policy with decency, without ‘condemning it’ as the Conservative motion proposes to do, especially when we are discussing a group of people who the Scottish Refugee Council tell us may be living on as little as £1.36.”

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Polls suggest that the reintroduction of free bus travel for asylum seekers is unpopular, being backed by only 25% of people in a Norstat survey for the Sunday Times. Some 48% opposed.

However, campaigners say it is a vital service that would stop people being forced to choose between eating and using public transport to get meetings with GPs and lawyers.

The Home Office provides £49.18 per week to asylum seekers in self-catered accommodation, while those in hotels get £8.86 per week.

A First Glasgow day ticket is £5.60. The same ticket type for Lothian Buses costs £5.