A government minister has told TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson he should “stick to cooking” after he criticised the minimum wage.
Economic secretary to the Treasury, Ed Balls, was reacting to Worrall-Thompson’s comments urging scrapping the minimum wage for restaurant workers.
He proposed tips should replace the minimum wage to encourage better standards in eateries. The chef also hit out at Eastern Europeans and other foreign workers for poor service in UK restaurants.
But Balls said: “I saw this morning in the newspapers the comments of Mr Worrall Thompson, who actually said it would be a good idea to abolish the minimum wage for restaurant workers in London.
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“Personally, I think he presents Saturday Kitchen very well but I think he should stick to cooking.
“It would be quite the wrong direction to take for our country to have restaurant workers in our country being denied the minimum wage and fairness at work.”
