A SCOTTISH Tory motion "condemning" free bus travel for asylum seekers has been overwhelmingly rejected by MSPs.
The Conservatives had faced criticism from the SNP, Greens, Labour, and LibDems after tabling the controversial motion, which saw them accused of a “dog whistle attack on asylum seekers”.
The Tories' condemnation of free bus travel for asylum seekers drew criticism from the First Minister and a joint intervention from the Scottish Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland.
However, the issue rarely featured in Conservative contributions to Wednesday’s debate, which Labour MSP Daniel Johnson said was because even that party’s MSPs could not truly support their own party’s stance.
When it came to a vote, an amendment tabled by Finance Secretary Shona Robison was passed by 73 votes to 28, with 21 abstentions.
Opening her speech, the SNP Cabinet Secretary 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.”
Robison’s amendment essentially erased all of the Tories’ motion, replacing it with a statement welcoming action on the Winter Fuel Payment and two-child benefit cap.
The vote meant that Labour MSP Michael Marra’s motion automatically fell. The amended motion then passed by 94 votes to 28.
Marra, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson, had appeared enraged by the inclusion of asylum seeker bus travel in the motion as he spoke. He repeatedly rejected Tory attempts to intervene during his speech and offered his “full throated agreement” with 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”.
He went on to accuse the Tories of attempting to “sow division between ordinary people, that is their ethos, because they exist to protect the interests of those who are really at fault”.
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.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the First Minister was asked by journalists about the debate, which he described as an “enormous regret”.
