Rishi Sunak was too busy to attend the British Curry Awards on Monday evening, so the prime minister sent a video message, apologising for his absence: “I’ve been a bit busy, juggling lots of plates, dealing with some tricky customers, making the sums add up. In fact the thing I’ve learnt about being prime minister is that the best training I ever had was working in a curry house.”
The son of immigrants and a former waiter in an Indian restaurant in Southampton might have expected some laughter and warmth from such a gathering but when he finished there was only a smattering of applause. Perhaps the reason was controversy over the government’s approach to immigration. The curry industry has long wanted more visas for