The SNP Housing Secretary was accused of being ‘in denial’ yesterday after denying a link between migration and housing shortages.

Màiri McAllan, who is tipped as a future SNP leader, said she would ‘never’ blame migration for housing pressures and added Scotland had ‘too few’ migrants.

The Scottish Conservatives said it showed how ‘out of touch’ the Nationalists had become, while Reform UK Scotland called her position ‘madness’.

Ms McAllan made her comments on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show in a discussion about immigration – a top three concern for voters in next month’s election.

She said migration was ‘necessary for our economy, for our hospitality sector, health and social care and our business’, while difficulties had been ‘inflamed’ and ‘exploited’ by Reform UK.

She went on: ‘There’s no doubt there’s housing pressure. I have always, as Housing Secretary, been absolutely clear that migration and housing are two separate policies.

‘I will never, ever blame migration for housing pressures.’

Instead she blamed a ‘perfect storm of things’ including economic conditions depressing construction, and the cost of living making it harder for households to make ends meet. She said: ‘Scotland’s story has been too few people, not too many.’

Also on the show, Reform candidate Thomas Kerr told her: ‘You cannot say that migration and housing are not similar issues.

‘In Glasgow, the latest figures are 9,334 people who are homeless – 65 per cent of them are illegal migrants. So to say that you cannot put those two issues in the same boat, I think, is madness.

‘What we’ve seen from your government is that you’re more focused on building agencies and more quangos than you are in actually building homes.’

Ms McAllan also repeatedly refused to say if the SNP would hit its home-building targets.

The party promised 110,000 affordable homes from 2022 to 2032 but is only a third done.

The row came as the Tories vowed to revive the ‘local connection’ rule that lets councils turn away homeless applications from people without ties to the area.

The SNP axed it in 2022, claiming it was a ‘barrier to accessing homelessness services’.

At the time, five per cent of applications were from people outside the council area. That has now almost tripled to 13 per cent.

Between April and September last year, 8 per cent of homelessness applicants – 1,420 out of 17,920 – had no connection to any part of Scotland at all.

A key factor has been a surge in refugees coming to Scotland, particularly Glasgow, because of generous homelessness rules.

As well as ending the local connection rule, the SNP also axed the priority need test in 2012.

English councils still prioritise homeless cases in need, such as families and pregnant women.

But in Scotland all cases are treated equally, making it more attractive to single men.

The upshot has been refugees made homeless in London, Liverpool, Manchester and other parts of the UK coming to Glasgow.

Glasgow’s SNP leader Susan Aitken last year warned the city faced a £90million budget gap, about £66million of it ‘homelessness overspend’ arising from ‘the pressure of the mass processing of people who are refugees already in the city and then exacerbated by people travelling from other parts of the UK’, for which she blamed the UK Government.

Tory candidate Stephen Kerr said: ‘The SNP’s reckless open-door immigration policy has made Glasgow a magnet for asylum seekers.

‘Màiri McAllan’s out-of-touch remarks confirmed her and the SNP are in a state of denial about the pressures illegal immigration is putting on Scotland’s public services.

‘The Nationalists’ disastrous decision to suspend the local connection rule has led to an influx of immigrants into Scotland’s largest city, increasing the already-huge demand for social housing and putting other public services under immense pressure. Even the SNP-run council are telling John Swinney they can’t cope.

‘The Scottish Conservatives would reinstate the local connection rule immediately to ease Glasgow’s housing crisis.’ Scottish Labour’s Michael Marra added: ‘Màiri McAllan and the SNP are in denial about the housing emergency they have created.

‘People across Scotland are paying the price for SNP failures on housing’