The chief executive of the British Hospitality Association (BHA), Bob Cotton, has defended his statement that UK workers are “unemployable” and, if faced with hiring either a Pole or a Briton, the decision would be a “no-brainer”.

Cotton was speaking at parliamentary inquiry into tourism when he said that, in his experience, local people were less willing to work than their Polish counterparts.

He said: “If you’re an employer and have a keen person from Poland, who is bright, smiling, wants to work, who turns up every day, will work 45 to 50 hours a week against a person who turns up one day, doesn’t turn up the next, isn’t really interested, then it’s a no-brainer.”

He later told The Mail on Sunday that the hospitality industry often thought that British applicants were “unemployable”.

Cotton’s comments provoked the ire of some contemporaries, with Grant Hearn of Travelodge and Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price publicly rejecting his claims.

However, in a statement released to Leisure Opportunities, Cotton stood firm.

“The hospitality industry employs so many migrant workers because it is clear that few British youngsters want to make a career in it – at a time when unemployment among British young people is high and rising, and when too many others are on benefit,” he said.

“Of course there are many British workers, like overseas workers, who are highly motivated, very willing to work and eager to learn new skills. The industry would far prefer to recruit these young people if they were available but many employers have found, too often, that British youngsters lack a work ethic and the motivation to learn. “When migrant workers are knocking on their door and asking for a job, then it is little wonder that hospitality employers look to overseas workers to fill the many excellent and worthwhile jobs that are available.

“If the education system could produce more young British people who are more motivated to work, want to learn new vocational skills and are keen to make a career in one of the most important of this country’s economic drivers, then employers would snap them up.”