Keith Vaz has accused Government employment minister Priti Patel of 'divide and rule politics of the worst kind’ over her claims that leaving the European Union would save Britain's struggling curry houses.
Conservative Ms Patel, who was promoting the Vote Leave campaign last week in Mr Vaz's Leicester East constituency, said curry restaurants were being starved of quality chefs by the Government's "biased" immigration policy, which restricts the number of skilled workers from outside the EU.
Ms Patel said a lack of control of the country's immigration system was to blame for the closure of three to five curry house a week.
She said: "By voting to leave we can take back control of our immigration policies, save our curry houses and join the rest of the world.”
Mr Vaz however said she had misidentified the issue. He said: "I was furious to see Priti Patel claiming that leaving the EU and shutting the door on immigrants from Poland and elsewhere would save Britain's curry houses. This is divide and rule politics of the worst kind.
"The truth is that the stoking of anti-Eastern European sentiment is a new form of racism that is no less bad than that experienced by previous waves of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent.
"I will defend to the hilt the right of those who come here and contribute to our society, wherever they come from. Giving in to rhetoric that sets one community against another would be to take a step towards a less tolerant and more mean-spirited Britain.
"I agree with Priti that there is a crisis happening in our country's curry houses. It is deeply alarming that on average two are closing every week but this has nothing to do with the EU and everything to do the policies espoused by Priti Patel, who just happens to be an Employment Minister and the Government's "Diaspora Champion".
He said the problem was the current visa scheme which set a salary threshold of £29,750 for chefs which made it hard for curry restaurants to recruit chefs from abroad.
He added: "This could easily be solved in a stroke of Priti Patel's pen by lowering the minimum salary requirement for chefs, something I have campaigned for along with MPs from all parties.
"Priti Patel has failed to address this vital issue and is now conveniently using the EU as a scapegoat. She has chosen to come to Leicester, a city that prides itself on its diversity, to lecture us on immigration.
"This is a place where communities from all around the world, whether they are Indians, Poles, Kurds or Slovaks, can rub shoulders and get along, as demonstrated by the quarter of a million people who turned out on Monday to celebrate Leicester City's Premier League victory.
"We should have no truck with those who try and divide our society and wreck our economy. My response to Priti Patel is clear - support our struggling curry houses, but don't blame migrants from elsewhere.”
