Staff at Oxfordshire hotel are made redundant before Christmas as bosses take ... trends now

A furore has surrounded a prestigious country hotel which initially dismissed around 20 employees on the same day they prepared to welcome orphaned child refugees as part of a deal with the Home Office.

Whateley Hall Hotel in Banbury, Oxfordshire, has not been profitable for years due to Covid and the loss of a major contract, its owner Ravi Ruparelia told local media.

Head chef Jordan Blencowe, who had worked at the hotel for 12 years after qualifying in college and even met his wife there, said he was assured in a meeting on November 24 that his team's jobs were safe.

But the following day, after preparing the kitchen for the hotel's new arrivals, Mr Blencowe says he and his staff were dismissed without November's pay or an offer of redundancy.

Mr Blencowe described Whately Hall as 'a business that I fell in love with'.

He said: 'There was no consideration or care for how families were going to pay their mortgages, rents, food or bills. 

'We were assured that we would receive our wages for the month of November and with no warning was told no more money will be paid out.'

Other hotels have notably refused Home Office contracts worth £1million to house refugees.

After a public protest by staff outside the hall last week and intercession from Banbury MP Victoria Prentis, Whately Hall hotel's owner has now agreed to pay departing staff wages and redundancy payouts, the Banbury Guardian reports.

'We have taken out a loan so the staff get their redundancy, holiday and notice pay monies as soon as possible. In any normal scenario this would be a month after,' said Mr Ruparelia today.

'This is at huge personal expense - circa £100k - and contrary to the narrative this would not come from the tax payer as we are giving this money to the staff with no condition to pay it back. This would mean they

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