2nd Jun 2021 13:53
(Alliance News) - JD Wetherspoon PLC on Wednesday said that the Telegraph newspaper had misrepresented its position of staffing and its chair's position on EU migration.
The Hertfordshire-based pub operator pushed back against a media report released this Tuesday titled: "Wetherspoons boss calls for more EU migration as bars and restaurants tackle staff shortage."
The company claims the article inaccurately implied that JD Wetherspoon had difficulties recruiting staff and that its chair, Tim Martin, had "urged Boris Johnson to introduce a visa scheme for EU workers."
The company notes that Tim Martin's communications with a Telegraph journalist state that "anecdotal feedback from...pubs since reopening [is that there are] lots of people applying generally."
Texts between Martin and the Telegraph journalist specify locations where JD Wetherspoon received far more applicants than it had vacancies. The only exceptions were seaside towns, Martin's texts said: "but that's no different to what we experience in any year."
With regard to the claim that Martin had pressured Boris Johnson to introduce a visa scheme for EU workers, the company stated that: "Mr Martin has had no contact whatsoever with Mr Johnson since he became Prime Minister."
Martin said that his position regarding a visa system was clearly outlined in the evidence he gave to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee in 2017. The chair of the pub chain said he supported an Australia or North American-style immigration system, with the possibility of preferential visas based on proximity to the UK.
Tim Martin, JD Wetherspoon chair, said: "I was trying to be helpful to the journalist by providing up-to-date anecdotal information on staffing, which clearly demonstrated a very positive situation for Wetherspoon.
"However, my comments were misreported. The false story, expressed in the headline "Wetherspoons boss calls for more EU migration as bars and restaurants tackle staff shortage" and expressed or implied elsewhere in the article, was that Wetherspoon was suffering staff shortages, which clearly isn't true, and that I had subsequently been moved to change my stance on immigration, which, as my evidence to the parliament several years ago clearly shows, isn't true either."
JD Wetherspoon shares were trading down 1.3% at 1,333.00 pence each in London on Wednesday afternoon.
By Scarlett Butler; [email protected]
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