Wetherspoon’s releases Brexit beer mats… again
JD Wetherspoon has today placed 500,000 new beer mats in its pubs, in an effort to persuade punters unilateral free trade is the best approach for the UK post-Brexit.
Founder and chairman Tim Martin argued last month that unilateral free trade will reduce food and drink prices in the UK, allowing Wetherspoon's to make its pints 1.5p cheaper.
“There has been a coordinated campaign to dupe the public," Martin said today.
"For example, David Tyler, the chairman of Sainsbury’s, recently told the Sunday Times that imported food prices could rise by 22 per cent without a ‘deal’ with the EU. This is highly misleading. Parliament has the power to reduce food prices at a stroke in March 2019."
The beer mats feature "The Wetherspoon Manifesto", which details three policies the pub company says should be adopted by the UK government. As well as measures to reduce food prices and stop sending money to the EU, Wetherspoon's says legal EU immigrants should be given full citizen rights.
Martin went on to say: “The public, press and MPs have been led to believe by Tyler, the CBI, and other organisations that food prices will inevitably rise if we leave the EU without a deal. It’s important to provide the public with the truth, so that they are able to decide for themselves.”
This is not the first time the pub chain has used beer mats to talk to customers. During the EU referendum campaign Wetherspoon printed hundreds of thousands of pro-Brexit beer mats.
Read more: Wetherspoon boss: Brexit threat is to EU economies, not ours