Blame your food, not Brexit, party chairman tells Oliver

JAMES CLEVERLY has clashed with Jamie Oliver after the chef blamed Brexit for the failure of his restaurant empire.

The Tory party chairman and cabinet minister said the demise of Oliver’s chains was nothing to do with Brexit but due to the poor quality and presentation of food Jamie’s Italian dished up.

“I recently ate at a Jamie’s restaurant and the quality of food just didn’t match the price,” he tweeted.

“The staff were friendly but the presentation was poor and the food was bland. In a competitive ‘family restau- rant’ market you need to get the basics right.”

In BBC Radio 4’s Jamie Oliver: A Life Through Food, the celebrity chef laid the blame for the collapse of his restaurant empire squarely on Brexit, claiming people had been eating out less since the referendum in 2016 due to uncertainty.

“The world changed, the high street changed … Then, when there’s that chain reaction, throw a bit of Brexit in, say the B word, confidence goes and people’s habits changed.”

Oliver did not respond to requests for a comment.