Not because he was worried about an influx of immigrants, but because he is desperate for staff and sees countries like Poland and the Czech Republic as a source for hard working willing new labour.
Another senior member of the Chamber asked me to intervene to help overcome problems he was having getting a work permit for a young IT specialist from India to come and join his Exeter office.
I recite these stories because it shows the current debate on immigration bears little resemblance to reality and the needs of our economy.
Unemployment has been virtually eliminated in Exeter. There are many more job vacancies then jobless. There are not huge pools of labour in other parts of Britain that can move here.
That is why Exeter firms are looking for young flexible workers from abroad. But it is not just the businesses that benefit.
The new workers pay tax and contribute to our public services. The more people there are in work, keeping the economy growing, the more money government has to spend on the NHS, pensions and schools.
I get quite a few letters from constituents worried about immigration. Many of them are from elderly people. Yet it is the elderly who benefit most from the extra workers in the health and care services and from the taxes these people pay.
With out aging population and low birth rate, we face a stark choice in Britain. We are all either going to have to work until we are much older in order to fund public services and pay for our pensions, or we can bring in labour from abroad to do that work for us.
The numbers must be probably managed and controlled � unlike the recent scam in Romania. But happen it must, or else we will be the poorer for it.
