Wetherspoon founder and outspoken Brexit advocate Tim Martin has called on leaders not to pay Brussels a Brexit fee and to end tariffs, by launching half a million new beer mats.
Headlined “Free Trade (i.e. ‘No Deal’) means lower prices” and addressed to Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn and Vince Cable, the new beer mats land in Wetherspoon’s 875 pubs today.
On the mats, Martin calls on the UK’s leaders to abandon plans to pay a Brexit divorce bill of £39bn to Brussels, saying the “vast majority of the public” objects to the idea.
He also urges politicians to choose free trade by ending tariffs on goods, which he says will lead to lower prices.
This follows the decision by Wetherspoon to reshuffle its menu, introducing more drinks from non-EU countries and ditching champagne from the bar, in a move Martin has said will mean consumers can enjoy lower prices after Brexit if the government adopts a free trade policy.
“Most economists, businesses and writers mistakenly believe that ‘no deal’ automatically results in the mutual imposition of tariffs by the UK and the EU under WTO rules,” said Martin.
“That is not true. The rules also allow the UK to abolish current EU import tariffs, effectively adopting ‘free trade’ as a number of very successful countries have already done.”
