SNP and Tories MSPs joined forces at Holyrood today to block a bid to ensure “standards of decency and dignity” in housing for migrant farmworkers.

Socialist MSP Richard Leonard introduced an amendment to the Agriculture and Rural Commuities (Scotland) Bill calling for the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board, which sets wages by rates for tied accommodation, to enforce housing standards.

He said: “We receive report after report containing irrefutable evidence that migrant seasonal workers brought over by labour providers on six-month visas under the seasonal worker visa scheme are not living but barely existing on farms in Portakabins or static caravans that are not insulated and that are damp and covered in mould, which have security and personal safety issues and which are infested with rodents and where there are no laundry facilities and unsanitary conditions are all too common.