Scottish Secretary David Mundell has appeared to rule out the possibility of Scotland having different post-Brexit immigration rules than the rest of the UK.
Securing control of the UK's borders will be one of the Government's main negotiating aims as it looks to formalise its divorce from Brussels.
Stuart C McDonald, SNP MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East, urged Mr Mundell to consider allowing Scotland to operate under a different set of immigration rules for EU nationals.
Mr Mundell said he would consider all "evidence-based proposals" but stressed that immigration remains a reserved power.
Mr McDonald asked during Scotland questions in the Commons: "We know around 180,000 EU nationals make a hugely valuable contribution to the Scottish economy.
"We also know that countries like Canada and Australia successfully apply different immigration rules to different parts of their countries.
"Going beyond warm words, will the Secretary of State listen carefully to proposals for a different arrangement for Scotland, allowing EU citizens freedom to continue coming to live and work there, benefiting us all?"
Mr Mundell replied: "I will always look at evidence-based proposals that come forward and that's our commitment for example in relation to the Scottish Government's paper produced just before Christmas.
"But it was quite clear within the settlement agreed in the Smith Commission that immigration would remain a reserved power."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article