Fashion boss gives EU vote bid £1m

A multimillionaire fashion label founder has pledged his financial backing to the People’s Vote campaign.

Julian Dunkerton, one of the people behind Superdry, has reportedly donated £1 million to the group fighting for a referendum on the final Brexit deal. Writing in the Sunday Times, he said the public know Brexit will be a “disaster”. He said: “I’m putting some of my money behind the People’s Vote campaign because I know we have a genuine chance to turn this around.”

Mr Dunkerton, pictured, added: “I will be paying for one of the most detailed public polling exercises ever undertaken by a campaign, so more of us have the confidence to demand the democratic right for our voices to be heard – to get a People’s Vote on any

Brexit deal.”

He co-founded Superdry in 1985 from a market stall in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The clothing retailer floated on the Stock Exchange in 2010.

Mr Dunkerton said: “But if Brexit had happened 20 years earlier, Superdry would never have become the global success that it is.”

Pro-brexit Tory MP Andrew Bridgen insisted it would make little difference as many former Remain voters were now swinging behind Leave. “People’s Vote talk about democracy. What their declared intent is is to overturn the democratic decision of the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union,” Mr Bridgen said.

“The way the EU have dealt with the UK government in these negotiations, a large number of former Remain voters have come to the conclusion that we couldn’t possibly stay in this relationship any longer.

“It would be rather like returning to an abusive relationship if we stayed in. We would be an absolute

doormat.”