Stephen Williams, a Lib Dem MP for Bristol, said new waves of immigration were replacing the 'white working class'

Pubs are closing because traditionally white working class areas have become home to mainly Muslim immigrants, a minister has said.

Stephen Williams, a minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, said pubs had shut down in his constituency after a wave of Somali migration.

The Lib Dem, who represents a constituency in Bristol, said it was pointless trying to protect all pubs from closing because many had been abandoned by the new communities living around them.

In a Government debate yesterday he told MPs that new waves of immigration were replacing the 'white working class' in some areas – meaning some pub closures were inevitable.

Mr Williams' remarks came as the Government unveiled to stop pubs being demolished or converted which are deemed valuable to local communities.

He said 'blanket protection' of every pub was impossible because it would mean keeping some open which had long become redundant.

He said: 'In my own constituency, lots of pubs have closed but it is usually because of demographic change,' said the minister, who represents a seat in Bristol.

'Particularly in some parts of my constituency, which used to have ... 'a white working class community' 20 or 30 years ago are now populated primarily by recently-arrived Somalis and other people.

'Obviously the pubs in that area have closed. Some have been converted to other uses, some of them actually are still derelict.'

The remarks come after Tory peer Lord Hodgson sparked controversy after claiming the growing Muslim population was one of the main reasons for the problems hitting the pub trade.

Lord Hodgson said pubs are under threat in areas such as Leeds, Nottingham, Leicester and Birmingham

A series of amendments to the Infrastructure Bill were tabled including a cross-party effort to ensure pubs and other drinking establishments could not be demolished or have their use changed without planning permission.

Lord Hodgson, who is a former brewery boss, said pubs are closing in areas with growing Muslim communities.

Former brewery boss Lord Hodgson, pictured, has blamed the increasing size of Britain's Muslim population for the growing rate of pub closures

Speaking in the Lords, the peer - a former director of pub chain Marston's - said: 'Twenty-five years ago, the company of which I was a director would have operated probably a dozen pubs in Kidderminster, the home of the carpet trade. The carpet trade has gone and there are three pubs left.

'In areas of Nottingham, Leicester, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham the increase in the Muslim population who don't drink leads to many pub closures.

'It is exceptionally hard for a publican who has put 10 years of his life into trying to build up a business to accept the inevitability of these tides of history.'

He said the issue was one of the three main reasons pubs were going out of business, along with the 'inexorable rise of regulation' and the availability of low price alcohol in supermarkets.

He added: 'The reasons for closure may be portrayed as rapacious owners increasing rent wishing to profit by turning pubs into houses or corner stores, but the tide is running against the ordinary pub.'

Lord Hodgson said there was a danger companies would not invest in improving pubs if landlords could opt out of tied arrangements.

'No pub owner is going to invest many thousands of pounds, hundreds of thousands of pounds in some cases, if the tenant can then walk away from supplier agreements,' he said.

Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, an organisation which is inter-faith and anti-extremist, told the Independent in December that it was 'ridiculous' to blame Muslims for the closure of pubs.

He said: 'The consumption and marketing of alcohol has also changed over time. What is also clear is that some pubs have been successful and others have not been able to generate customers and clients.'