Row after Martin Salter slates mag for 'racist' claim
The editor of Curry Life magazine has been angered by comments made by Reading West MP Martin Salter in the House of Commons.
Linda Fort
Reading West MP Martin Salter
Sayed Ahmed, whose magazine serves the restaurant trade, accused Mr Salter of misinterpreting an editorial during a debate on immigration controls on Tuesday, October 21.
Mr Salter was referring to a visit to India and Sylhet in Bangladesh by the home affairs select committee, which Mr Ahmed covered for his magazine.
After the trip, Mr Salter said the magazine argued the UK's points system was "racist" – which Mr Ahmed denies.
Mr Salter told the House of Commons: "We have between 300,000 and 400,000 people of Bangladeshi origin in Britain, some of whom are in the most deprived communities.
"I do not accept the argument that it is only possible to recruit a trained Bangladeshi curry chef from people who are already living in Bangladesh.
"Nor do I accept the absurd contention in the latest edition of Curry Life – a magazine I commend to all honourable members – that the points-based system is completely racist.
"A system that applies equally to a white Russian, a black Jamaican or someone from south Asia is not racially motivated.
"It is about meeting the needs of the economy, and the needs of the restaurant sector can be met by internal UK recruitment or the establishment of a college in Sylhet, which will allow the training of chefs to enable them to acquire the tier-two qualification."
Mr Ahmed told the Evening Post: "The editorial in Curry Life never at any point mentions the points-based system.
"It is highly critical of the Home Office and the way that Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants are targeted in raids. It is about the discrimination they face and about institutional racism in the system."
Mr Ahmed was instead referring to the debate over a Conservative motion which proposed 'capping' immigration levels, not the existing points-based system which allows skilled and qualified people into the country, provided they have a job to go to in a sector which needs their skills.
He said: "We are totally against capping but we are not against the point-based system.
"There are certainly some problems with it, some loopholes which need to be sorted out.
"The system was based on an Australian model and I think there are problems with it, but it is quite wrong to suggest, as Mr Salter has done, that we regard it as 'completely racist'."
He said many of his readers were restaurateurs in Reading who would be concerned about this misinterpretation.
In the editorial, Mr Ahmed said of the home affairs select committee's trip to India and Bangladesh – before it set off – "The select committee is the creation of the Home Office, the very institution that is behind the reckless, thuggish raids on Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants in many parts of Britain.
"It's lily-white hands are steeped in racist mischief.
"Keith Vaz, the chair of the select committee, has failed to get any response from the Home Secretary to his enquiries about these police raids and the demoralising effects they have on the owners and staff of these restaurants."
However, he described Mr Vaz as honourable, incorruptible and outspoken and wished him and his committee – of which Martin Salter is a member – well, hoping its report would "allay anxieties of the ethnic minorities".