Restaurant Association chairman and D&D London co-founder David Loewi has branded the Government’s stance on immigration as “retrograde” and “bonkers”.
He told the Guardian that erecting barriers to the employment of workers from Europe would be “extremely detrimental and would stop the growth of businesses”.
He said the Restaurant Association would be “lobbying hard” against any block on employing talent from the EU and the government only had to look at the fall in the value of the pound in recent months to see how confidence in Britain was being affected by its stance.
He told the paper: “There are so many UK industries that would not be able to work without EU employees. We welcome English workers but we shouldn’t be looking at where people come from if they can do a wonderful job. [Overseas workers] make London what it is and are important, certainly in the restaurant and hotel trades and the NHS.”
Loewi said Amber Rudd’s comments about “naming and shaming” companies over how many foreign staff they employed were “completely bonkers, very negative and upsetting for a lot of fellow Europeans and people from all over the world who work in London and the rest of the UK. People will twice about coming here, paying their taxes.
“The restaurant business in London pays very well and conditions are good. It’s an exciting and fantastic career because you can move up and start your own business. But we can only grow and open more restaurants if we can find the staff. [Rudd’s suggestions] are a retrograde and negative step.”
