The Conservative Party’s issued a leaflet to Southampton residents to promote their candidate for Southampton Itchen, Sidney Yankson. The leaflet under the economic section features the a photo of the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Kuti Miah outside Kuti’s Of Southampton restaurant with Sidney Yankson. Kuti Miah’s Kuti’s restaurant was in the media as the company running it Joytun Bari Limited went into liquidation owing creditors £840,000.
The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak worked at Kuti’s Brasserie restaurant on Oxford Street as a teenager. He might be less overjoyed to feature alongside Kuti Miah on the Conservative Party leaflet. Miah was a director of Joytun Bari Ltd – trading as Kuti’s Brasserie, which went into voluntary liquidation at the end of 2022 after notching up debts of £840,000. The conservative leaflet features the headline ‘Our Economic plan is Working. Let’s stick with it’.
Miah’s liquidated business was reported to owe £338,214 to HMRC, £270,000 to Joytun Bari director Kuti Miah, plus £40,000 to the city council and £40,000 to Barclays Bank which was a government issued Covid Loan.Other creditors included Asiatic Limited of Barking, Essex (£20,000), Euro Foods in South Wales (£34,600), and Gandhi Oriental Foods of Barking (£13,000).
The restaurant is now operated by KZCA Limited and has Kuti Miahs daughter listed as a director.
Kuti’s of Southampton also had to contend with an employment tribunal in 2023. A claim relating to the deductions was lodged with Southampton Employment Tribunals (SET) in November 2022.In a statement SET said: “The respondent has failed to present a valid response on time.
“The Employment Judge has decided that a determination can properly be made of the claim, or part of it. The respondent made unauthorised deductions from the claimant’s wages and must pay the claimant £1,739.65.”
The conservative leaflet features news on decreasing inflation, raising income for workers, increasing the national living wage and decreasing mortgage rates.
At Southampton Times we feel that taking action against Covid loan defaulters, and those not paying HMRC tax and local council tax rates would be more effective ways to tackle inflation and higher taxes rather than issuing leaflets with the same people causing inflation.
