VAT isn’t a subject that fires up many conversations, but asking TV chef Tom Kerridge about it is like giving him a triple espresso. When we switch from easy-going natter about his soothing, sun-dappled new series, Tom Kerridge Cooks Italy, his gentle giant frame snaps briskly to attention.
The beefy hands he had just been holding up to lovingly air sketch the size and shape of an Italian pomegranate begin chopping their way through bullet points. Facts and figures come tumbling out of him as he tries to explain the impact a 10 per cent reduction in VAT would have on Britain’s beleaguered hospitality industry – something he has been campaigning for since May. “Knocking off that 10 per cent would put us in line with the rest of Europe,” he says. “It’s the difference between the chalkboard still standing outside your local pub next year or it being boarded up.”
Famously a generous employer himself – paying staff at his own five venues above market rates, offering perks such as gym memberships and operating a profit-sharing scheme based on the John Lewis model – he is keen to frame the argument in human terms.
“The Great British food scene we’ve built over the past 25 to 30 years ought to be a huge source of national pride,” he says. “It’s bursting with passion, creativity and driven by hard graft, connection and community spirit.” Here come some numbers: “Over three million people work in hospitality in the UK at the moment,” he says. “But 350,000 of those people have lost their jobs in the past year.”
