Local Take Aways' Faced with Labour Famine

3.42.30pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 28th Apr 2008

Chicken tandoori and Peking duck may have become staples of the British diet but they could be under threat as local Chinese, Indian and Thai restaurants struggle to recruit staff in the face of new, less flexible, immigration rules.

Vincent Cable, MP, who - like other MPs - has been lobbied by local restaurant owners - said: "under the new rules skill levels and language requirements are specified in such a way that Chinese or South Asian chefs would not qualify. It is unlikely that non-ethnic Chinese or Asians will want, or be able, to offer specialist cooking skills. There is a real concern that this popular part of the eating out, and take-away, culture can survive unless the government is more flexible. This is one of the many practical problems which arise when the government feels it has to respond to panic in the national press by showing that it is 'tough on immigration'".