Having the advantage of hindsight, perhaps it would be appropriate to say the Brexit Leave campaigners had offered the bait of ‘more visas for south Asians’ to curry favour with the British curry industry voters.
The British curry industry fell for it. It took the bait and helped in voting out the Remain supporters.
But politicians are capable of showing their true colours. And they did so. The Leave politicians failed to keep their promise over immigration.
Consequently, today the disgruntled industry is giving the politicians concerned a bit of curry for betrayal.
And why not? The criticism is valid. Britain’s £4bn curry industry helped the Leave campaigners in the Brexit vote, but ironically many of the curry businesses today have to leave the occupation for want of chefs.
The number of licensed curry restaurants has declined by 13%, with over 1,000 restaurants winding up permanently in the last 18 months, according to a recent survey.
Curry house owners are concerned about the current government’s crackdown on immigration, as they are already struggling to hire chefs from abroad and are facing mass closures.
At present, the government requires them to pay at least £29,570 per annum to get a visa for a chef from the sub-continent. Visa applications are often rejected and the staff shortage is the principal reason why eateries are shutting up shop.
Priti Patel, International Development Secretary, who was a leading Leave campaigner, said a Brexit vote would allow the curry industry to relax non-EU immigration rules and “save” British curry houses.
The industry was hoping that a new Australian “points-style” immigration system would come to its rescue, allowing it to recruit more workers from countries like India and Bangladesh.
But Theresa May dashed all its hopes. One of May’s first announcements after becoming Prime Minister was to rule out such a system, which she thinks could up immigration levels. Adding to the woes, Home Seceratary Amber Rudd has pledged to reduce the overall number of migrants.
Pasha Khandaker, president of the Bangladesh Caterers’ Association, who campaigned for Brexit, told the Financial Times: “I am very disappointed, when Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, prominent figures from the governing party, they were clearly saying that they would introduce a points-based system of immigration, Australia-style. My organisation supported Brexit for several reasons but the main reason was to bring people from abroad to help our industry to survive.”
Chris Parsons, chair of the India practice at law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, too was quoted in FT as saying that it would be “politically rather difficult for Theresa May and the rest of the Government to say we’re closing European immigration down but we want to encourage lots of Chinese and Indians to come in”.
