Denis MacShane is a former Minister of Europe and was a Labour MP for 18 years.
Curry house owners are rightly up in arms as they now realise the full extent of the Leave campaign’s deception.
Weeks before the 2016 referendum three Brexit fanatics, all of whom have since served in the cabinet – Priti Patel, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove – launched a “save our curry houses” campaign.
They told leaders of the UK’s £4.3 billion curry house industry that if they threw their network of employees and family members behind Vote Leave they would be rewarded by an end free movement from the EU, opening doors for curry house chefs and workers from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India.
They were understandably incensed, therefore, when David Davis refused to rule out preferential treatment for EU citizens to come and work in the UK continuing while Commonwealth citizens from Asia will still have to wait in queues for visas which are notoriously hard to obtain.
In 2016 Priti Patel promised the UK’s curry owners: “By voting to leave we can take back control of our immigration policies, save our curry houses and join the rest of the world.”
Vote Leave declared: “Every week 3-5 curry restaurants close down because of the government’s biased immigration policy. The EU forces us into the worst of both worlds: uncontrolled immigration from the EU, while we turn away talented people from the Commonwealth and the rest of the world.”
Now the curry world feels deceived and let down by the Brexiters. Mitu Chowdhury, speaking for the Bangladesh Caterers Association, said: “We attended every single campaign meeting with Boris Johnson, Priti Patel and Michael Gove and they said the British curry industry would be a first priority. We think we have been left down.” Granting preference to EU workers would “be a disaster”, he added, as curry restaurant owners are pushed to the back of the queues for visas.
Enam Ali, founder of the British Curry Awards, tells the Evening Standard: “On many occasions we recall Boris Johnson and others say it was very important that we could bring in chefs from outside the EU. But now it seems as if nobody is entertaining the idea.”
Johnson and other Brexiters in the cabinet are accepting that freedom of movement for Europeans who obtain jobs in the UK will continue during the so-called transition period. And if the UK wants any kind of a trade agreement with the EU David Davis has made clear that he cannot rule out preferential treatment for EU citizens post-Brexit.
This all seems part of Brexiters’ plan to push Brexit through at any cost. If that means betraying their pledge to curry restaurant owners so be it.
