Scottish voters have shown little appetite for First Minister John Swinney’s campaign to boost immigration.

More than three quarters (77%) of respondents to a poll want immigration to be either lower or held at the current level, giving little support for Mr Swinney’s call for more incomers to help bridge the skills gap.

The poll by Norstat found only 23% wanted more immigration, against 34% seeking a decrease. Notably, the strongest opposition to immigration (71%) came from supporters of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and among the over 35s (40%).

Reform has been gaining support Scotland and is expected to secure a foothold in the Scottish parliament in next year’s elections.

The poll, conducted for The Sunday Times and The Times, found Reform UK is taking more votes from the Labour Party than the Tories in Scotland. Reform was backed by 12% of respondents, just one point behind the Tories and four points behind Labour.

More Labour voters (21%) backed an increase in immigration than Conservative voters (10%%). SNP and Liberal Democrat voters backed a rise in migration rather than a cut.

Mr Swinney has been pushing for the Scottish government to have “full power over migration policy”, though in the meantime he would like to see a Scottish visa introduced that would help more students to remain in Scotland.

Critics of the immigration policy say public services are already at breaking point and without significantly more investment they will struggle further to cope with an influx of people into the country.

The poll also showed Labour is on course for its worst Holyrood election result since devolution.  Ahead of its Scottish conference in Glasgow this weekend, it shows that just 18% of voters intend to back the party at the next Holyrood election in 2026.

This means that Scottish Labour would be tied with the Conservatives. Labour would lose four seats and the Scottish Tories would lose 13, leaving both parties with only 18 MSPs each.

The SNP is forecast to secure 55 MSPs while the Reform UK continue to see rising popularity in Scotland as the poll projects the party would gain 15 seats and the LibDems would gain nine, taking them up to 13 MSPs. The Scottish Greens would win 10 seats – leading to a pro-independence majority in Holyrood as Reform fractures the unionist vote.