Tycoon starts Brexit campaign
Pub chain owner on bus tour to promote total departure from EU
GLOUCESTER: Belting out 1980s pop tunes on a tour bus travelling across the country, British pub chain boss Tim Martin launched a campaign this week to persuade his customers they have nothing to fear from a no-deal Brexit.
Just as Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to unite Britain behind a compromise Brexit deal, favoured by business leaders for avoiding uncertainty, Leave campaign donor Martin is bucking the trend.
“There’s a massive amount of disinformation from organisations that desperately want us to stay (in the EU) and have conned the public,” the mane-haired bar tycoon said on the way to a tour stop at one of his pubs in western England.
Founder of the cut-price JD Wetherspoon bar franchise, Martin believes Britons were misled by warnings about exiting the European Union with no agreement.
Ahead of a crunch Dec 11 vote in parliament on May’s deal with Brussels, the 64-year-old has decided to visit 100 of his nearly 900 watering holes to make his case.
“You’ve got to bypass the metropolitan media to get your message across,” Martin said aboard the luxury coach he chartered to carry him and a supportive bar staff around the country.
May has embarked on her own swing through Britain, while her government and the Bank of England have issued grim economic predictions on the country’s fortunes if it pursues the kind of hard Brexit favoured by Martin.
“It’s project bias,” he said, adding that “massively pro-Remain” economists were just “putting numbers into a computer”.
Sitting in the bus, he began singing a 1980s hit – New Song by Howard Jones – to make his point.
Along with other Brexiteers, the pub magnate argues that a no-deal Brexit would bring an economic boom because of Britain’s ability to strike deals around the world.
“Incomes will go up on day one,” he said.
Asked whether he was stockpiling products for a no-deal Brexit after government warnings, the Wetherspoon boss said he was not.
Instead, he has already started selecting British or non-EU products for his pubs, for example, replacing German digestif Jagermeister with English herbal liqueur Strika.
“Our sales have gone up – so that’s proof that even very individualistic products can be replaced without adverse economic consequences,” he added.
“A massive smokescreen has been put over that issue and that’s the main reason for the tour.”
Working the tables at Martin’s first stop – The Commercial Rooms in Bristol – the company chairman was greeted more like a cult figure.
“You’re one of my heroes,” said retiree Liz Montgomery, 65.
The committed Leave voter said she shared his dissatisfaction with May’s plan: “It’s just not good enough. She needs to step up.”
In Gloucester, some had come especially to meet the Wetherspoon founder – not all of them were pro-Brexit.
Tim Mars, 65, from nearby Stroud, said he was a Remainer but noted he and Martin were united in opposition to May’s plan for different reasons.
But Leavers were enraptured. “He makes a lot of sense,” said Chris Davis, 59, who works in IT.
Martin has also deployed against May’s deal the chain’s in-house magazine – which it claims is read by two million customers – and glossy pamphlets on tables.
Matthew Osborne, 30, manager at a Wetherspoon’s in Bristol who joined for the first day of the tour, conceded some pub-goers didn’t appreciate the campaign.
“But it’s not so in-your-face that you can’t avoid it,” he said, stating debate in a democracy is “healthy”.
The student-heavy city of Bristol backed Remain in the 2016 referendum by 62% against 38% for Leave.
The national result was 52% in favour of leaving the EU.
Martin believes his network of pubs is a Brexit heartland across the divided country.
He thinks around three-quarters of pub-goers are Leave voters, while 75% of metropolitan “dinner party-goers” are Remainers.
“The real divide in UK society is between the dinner party and the pub,” Martin said, with a laugh.
“I know which camp I’m in – I do not like dinner parties!”