PARTS of Scotland rely on European Union migrants having freedom of movement for a sustainable economy according to Holyrood’s Brexit minister.

Michael Russell has told MPs at Westminster that EU nationals were crucial to both the NHS and the higher education sector.

Of the four freedoms of the single market Mr Russell said free movement of people was the most vital for Scotland’s economy.

The EU single market enshrines the free movement of goods, services, capital and people in law between all the member states.

Mr Russell said: “Of those, important as they are, the most important to Scotland is freedom of movement. Without freedom of movement, Scotland would have a very considerable problem.”

The minister, appointed by Nicola Sturgeon to oversee Scotland’s role in the Brexit negotiations said Scotland was not “full-up”.

Speaking to the Scottish Affairs Committee, he said: “There are many parts of Scotland in which the presence of EU nationals, in the short or long term, is the only conceivable way in which you will have a sustainable economic population at the present moment.

“There is a particular fixation with migration and I understand we have very different circumstances, but it can be resolved like any other issue if you have the will to resolve it and you apply intelligence to it.”

He said other countries, like Canada have different migration policies for different areas and the UK could do the same if it was willing.

He said that The UK needed to show an “openness to sit down and discuss these options with us”.