Pub boss steps into EU debate

Photo: Darren Robinson

Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin visits The Up Steps Inn, Oldham.

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THE founder of Wetherspoon, Tim Martin, visited one of his Oldham pubs yesterday where he told locals why he thinks Britain should vote to leave the EU.

Mr Martin spends two days a week visiting different Wetherspoon pubs and yesterday popped into town centre watering-hole Up Steps Inn for a spot of lunch and a chat about this month's EU referendum.

Surprisingly, the main argument of the man who owns almost 1,000 pubs is not an economic on.

Instead, Mr Martin delivers his argument for a vote to leave with more emphasis on democracy.

He said: "The EU is becoming undemocratic, a lot of decisions are being taken by people we haven't elected. For me, that's the core issue. We should be friends with Europe, trading partners with Europe and recognise their people are ­- in every respect - equal to us but they should make their own laws and we should make our laws.

"To me, people have tried to approach it with a business head but they can't see the wood for the trees. The key issue is business and democracy is the same thing but they got all confused by their spreadsheets and numbers and treaties. It's simple, it doesn't matter what treaties you've got, if you've got a dictatorship, it's going to go down the pan.

"If we leave, we will be better off financially. The government have tried to muddy the waters by concentrating on the trade treaty, single market, that sort of stuff. That's a side issue, the real issue is that Japan rose from the ashes in 1945 and within 30 years was the second biggest economy in the world but because - for the first time - they had become properly democratic.

"The equation is as simple as, more democracy equals more prosperity. Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and thousands of other companies come out of America. Not that many have come out of Brazil and Argentina because they've had a lot of problems with their democracy. If we come out, I think we will be able to continue to trade with all the people we trade with now, we'll be able to get better terms than we have now and we'll save money."

Mr Martin also spoke about how the EU debate has been played out so far and accused David Cameron and George Osborne of disrespecting the intelligence of the public.

He said: "They obviously think we're as thick as two short planks.

"I haven't found anyone that finds it difficult to understand that democracy and economic success are linked. Most people get that. In our pubs they're out [of the EU].

"We're the biggest sellers of wine in pubs in the UK but we only buy five per cent from Europe. So we get it from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. We've tried to buy it from Europe but we can't get the right deal.

"The number one Sauvignon blanc in the UK is from New Zealand. If we leave the EU, we'll be able to get a trade agreement with New Zealand and buy their wine even cheaper, and their lamb."