Employment Minister and prominent Vote Leave campaigner, Priti Patel, has warned that the EU is hurting the nation’s favourite dish.
She is supported in her call to leave by Enam Ali MBE, proprietor and founder of the British Curry Awards and Spice Magazine, along with Pasha Khandaker, President of the Bangladesh Caterers Association who represents 12,000 Curry houses.
Commenting, Priti Patel said: “Uncontrolled immigration from the EU has led to tougher controls on migrants from the rest of the world. This means that we cannot bring in the talents and the skills we need to support our economy while we remain tied into the EU. Curry houses are being hit particularly hard as they are finding it more difficult to bring in experienced chefs to cook great dishes and train the next generation of chefs. Our curry houses are becoming the victims of the EU’s uncontrolled immigration rules.” “By voting to leave the EU we can take back control of our immigration policies, save our curry houses and join the rest of the world.”
Regarding the current immigration system Priti Patel said: “Across the country when I visit Diaspora communities, I hear from numerous people of the struggles and problems they have encountered with the immigration system and rules they are subjected to. Temples and Gurdwaras have difficulties bringing priests in.
Our communities struggle to get visas for Kabbadi players to come and share their phenomenal sporting talents in this country. Families cannot bring over relatives for important occasions like weddings and births.Despite our strong historic links to this country, we do not expect special treatment or favours.
But what we do ask for and deserve is fairness.” Paul Scully MP said: “As Chairman of the APPG, I hear first-hand from owners how restaurants are closing down every week. There are many reasons behind this, but by far the biggest is the difficulty in attracting and retaining skilled curry chefs. Whilst the ideal situation would be to train chefs locally, there are not enough to keep this huge industry going. It cannot be right that skilled Bangladeshi chefs should be penalised for an immigration system that can do nothing to stem migration from within the EU and so bears down heavily on people from further afield.
“There are many reasons that I will be voting to leave the EU on 23rd June; the ability to forge closer trading relationships with growing economies like India, Bangladesh and China; bringing decision making back here to the UK and ensuring once and for all that we do not get dragged further into a Euro super-state.
However having greater flexibility on immigration, rather than managing numbers with one arm tied behind our back, has the potential to have a significantly positive effect on curry restaurants across the country that provide what has become our most popular dishes.
