Whilst I applaud Cranswick plc for coming up with a solution to their recruitment issues (‘500 Filipino butchers ease pressure on firm’, The Yorkshire Post, November 23), I can’t help thinking it is a perfect example of the madness of Brexit.

Your correspondent reports that in 2021 the company told MPs that “each of the Cranswick sites have been affected by the widely reported skilled butcher shortages as a result of Brexit and the lack of qualified British butchers”.

There you have it straight from the horse’s mouth (no pun intended): Brexit left this business short of staff.

Meat producer Cranswick has hired 500 workers from the Philippines to bolster staff numbers

The madness is that they have had to look to recruit staff from more than 6,000 miles away.

Is this what Brexiters voted for?

You may ask “why don’t they train British people”. Well, the article points out that they run an apprentice scheme so they do train British people, but they still need to recruit people from other countries.

They are like many other businesses who used to employ European Union citizens and have been left with staff shortages by Brexit and the removal of freedom of movement.

One thing your article does not comment on is if it will cost Cranswick plc more to recruit butchers from the Philippines than to recruit from the EU.

I think we could hazard a guess at the answer and what that will mean to the company’s prices.

From: David Stanbrook, Scarborough.

I am dismayed at David Cameron’s appointment as Foreign Secretary as he is not an MP. He will not be questioned by other MPs or via the public, and it seems the Government want us back in the EU.

The EU is not democratic as only one country can have the power to stop a bill being passed, like France did by voting against North Macedonia joining.

Mr Cameron has questionable business sense over past involvement in companies. The people who voted Brexit are being classed as not having the intelligence to understand what we voted for. I, like millions of others, voted to get away.

Yorkshire food producer Cranswick hiring 500 Filipino workers highlights madness of Brexit: Letters