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Are Brits Lazy? Here Are Five People Who, Like Lord Heseltine, Think So

Are Brits Lazy? Here Are Five People Who Think So
Asa Bennett
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Multi-bits via Getty Images

Conservative ex-deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine has risked causing controversy by blaming the productivity gap between the UK and other countries on the laziness of British workers.

The Tory peer, head of the publishing group Haymarket, told The Times on Tuesdaythat the economy was suffering from a bad attitude to work. "We don’t get up early enough, we don’t work hard enough, we’re not ambitious enough," he said.

Before critics rush to man the barricades against Heseltine, the Huffington Post UK rounded up five more people in his defence who agree that British workers are lazy.

5 People Who Thinks Brits Are Lazy
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver thinks Brits are "wet"(01 of05)
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Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver accused young Britons of being "wet" and suggested that they stop "whingeing" and work 80 to 100-hour weeks, going on to praise European immigrants for making far better workers."I think our European immigrant friends are much stronger, much tougher," he said. "If we didn't have any, all of my restaurants would close tomorrow. There wouldn't be any Brits to replace them. (credit:Tristan Fewings via Getty Images)
Boris Johnson agrees (02 of05)
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The London Mayor weighed in behind Oliver, saying that young people should not dismiss entry-level jobs as "menial' and "see them in the same way as Jamie Oliver's Eastern Europeans see those jobs... as a stepping stone to a life that can take them anywhere."
This plumbing boss shares their concerns(03 of05)
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Charlie Mullins, the founder of London-based Pimlico Plumbers, which has 200 staff, a third of them foreign, told the Daily Star that he gets British job applicants who "turn up late, dressed scruffily, with a couldn’t-care-less attitude."He added: "They sit there and you can just tell they’ve no interest whatsoever in the job.” (credit:Chris Jackson via Getty Images)
A bunch of Tory rising stars think so too(04 of05)
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A group of new Tory MPs including Priti Patel, Kwasi Kwarteng and Dominic Raab were behind a controversial book called Britannia Unchained, in which British workers were described as being "among the worst idlers in the world"."Too many people in Britain prefer a lie-in to hard work," they also argued. (credit:flickr.com)
Even Madonna thinks Brits are lazy(05 of05)
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Speaking in 2003, the singer said that Brits are "not willing to work – you know, stay in the office for 12 hours a day." She also added that Americans "know how to get things done quicker". (credit:Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
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