Revealed: The great Brexit pubs and clubs shutdown

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “Ministers will never say that some pubs and hospitality companies will go to the wall as a result of their immigration policies, but that is exactly what their policies are designed to achieve.” Jonathan Thomas, a senior fellow at the Social Market Foundation think tank, said: “It was totally envisaged that the end of EU freedom of movement would cause job vacancies in sectors reliant on low-wage EU workers. It seems to be the government’s view that hospitality, which grew substantially pre-Brexit, will be collateral damage – that it will contract and be a smaller sector than it was.” The new figures on closures, compiled by consultancies CGA by NIQ and AlixPartners, reveal that poorer cities such as Aberdeen and Birmingham have suffered more, losing 19 and 17 per cent respectively of their city centre licensed premises in the past three years, compared to more affluent cities – such as Bristol, which lost just 1.5 per cent. Staff shortages have plagued the sector for years, and with vacancies 48 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels, the government must take action to change the immigration system.” Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle, the former shadow business secretary, said we need to look beyond quick fixes to the immigration system. open image in gallery Many business were already struggling because of Covid Seventy per cent of employers think that restricted access to labour is a threat to their competitiveness, “and will be in five years’ time”, according to a poll published in a CBI report last year.