A SENIOR executive of BrewDog has delivered a savage assessment of the UK Government’s plans for a points-based immigration system, warning it will destroy the diversity of the workforce in the hospitality industry and lead to the closure of restaurants, bars and cafes.

David McDowall, chief operating officer of the Ellon-based brewer and bar company, said the controversial proposals will have “more impact on the future of our industry than almost anything else we have heard over the last few decades”.

His intervention in a blog posted on Twitter came amid a furious response from a wide range of industries in Scotland to the plans, which would severely restrict the ability of companies to recruit people from countries within the European Union (EU) after Brexit.

Stephen Leckie, chief executive of the Crieff Hydro hotel group, said there had been “no consultation whatsoever” over the plans, which will leave him struggling to fill jobs. Thirty per cent of his company’s workforce come from EU nations.

BrewDog has staff from more than 40 countries on its books.

Mr McDowall states in his post that the UK hospitality industry benefits from the “skills and experience of talented people from an abundance of different nations". He writes: “Hospitality is an awesome antidote to the nationalist, anti-immigrant rhetoric that is turning us into a nation that it is more and more removed from a world that should be getting smaller, not more divided.

“However, the Conservative government’s newly announced points-based system will now do a brilliant job of destroying that. Firstly because we will eventually have a far less diverse and multi-cultural group of people working in (and growing great careers in) our hospitality industry, and secondly (crucially!!) because we will close restaurants, bars and cafes around the country in their droves as they buckle under the weight of an unsustainable workforce availability crisis.”