Brexit: Byron burger boss supports plans for 'barista visas' to avert staff shortages after EU withdrawal

The Home Office is reportedly looking at plans to introduce the special visas to ensure the hospitality sector is fully staffed after the UK officially leaves the EU

Simon Cope who was named managing director of Byron on Tuesday, said he supports plans for the post-Brexit visas to prevent a staffing crisis (Carl Court / Getty Images)

The new managing director of popular burger chain Byron has thrown his support behind the introduction of “barista visas” to avoid labour shortages in café and restaurants following Brexit.

The Home Office is reportedly looking at plans to introduce the special visas to ensure the hospitality sector is fully staffed after Brexit.

The visa is closely modelled on the youth mobility scheme, which currently allows travellers from non-EU countries such as Australia and Canada to work in the UK for up to two years.

The visa plan was first suggested by Lord Green of the think-tank Migration Watch UK.

In an interview with Business Insider on Wednesday, Simon Cope who was named managing director of Byron on Tuesday, said he supports plans for the post-Brexit visas to prevent a staffing crisis.

“Byron, along with everyone else in our industry, has some fantastic people in it but a lot of those people are from abroad. They play such an important role in our economy, in our business, and to our customers," he said.

"I hope that our future Government recognises that and we still have a supply of really good and hardworking people."

Mr Cope’s comments come after Ufi Ibrahim, the head of the British Hospitality Association (BHA), in March warned that restaurants in the UK will need a decade to replace their EU staff with British employees after Britain leaves the EU because not enough home-grown workers want the jobs.

Earlier this year the director of human resources at Pret A Manger told a parliamentary committee that only one in 50 job applications her company received were from British nationals and the business may struggle to attract staff after the UK officially leaves the EU.

Pret A Manger employs people from 110 different nationalities, with 65 per cent of those from outside the UK being EU citizens