Who knew there was even such a thing as the British Kebab Awards? Well, it's a rather prestigious gathering, apparently. Held on Tuesday night in London the event attracted a host of senior Labour politicians including Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Angela Rayner. The awards were also founded by a Labour politician - current Mayor of Lambeth Ibrahim Dogus. In the general election Dogus was parachuted into Leave-voting West Bromwich East as a replacement for the departing Tom Watson. Dogus lost the seat and it went blue for the first time. Labour's decision to replace remoaner Tom with another remoaner - all the way from London no less - didn't help the party. It also emerged that Dogus prints an anti-Brexit message along the bottom of till receipts at his chain of kebab shops in London (see below).
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| The message printed on receipts issued in Ibrahim Dogus's kebab shops |
Jeremy Corbyn was at the ceremony to present an award for the second year running. He was given a mixed response on Tuesday night and boos could clearly be heard as he stepped up. He didn't do himself any favours as he informed the audience that he was actually a vegetarian: "
My test of a kebab restaurant, because of predilection not to eat meat is, sorry about this – I can’t ignore the truth that I am a vegetarian – is that, does it contain salad and do they have good falafels?"
Watch his poorly received introduction below.
Labour MPs for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris) and Brighton Kemptown (Lloyd Russell-Moyle) were also in attendance. The latter appeared in a video alongside a very animated Angela Rayner, perhaps having taken full advantage of the refreshments available?
Kebab shops are rooted in Turkey and have been linked to a number of grooming gangs and serious sexual assaults around the country, including the
murder of Charlene Downes in Blackpool. Other cases include
Portsmouth,
Ramsgate and
Manchester.
