WETHERSPOON boss Tim Martin has savaged Brexit opponents who scare-mongered over the economy before and after the referendum, and said Britain doesn't need a trade deal with the EU to prosper.
Tim Martin has lashed out at Brexit critics
As the pub chain reported record sales and profits, its chairman laid into the establishment figures such as George Osborne and Mark Carney, as well as leading city firms, who talked down Britain's ability to cope with a vote to leave.
Mr Martin was a leading Brexiteer who championed the case for leaving the European Union and had 500,000 Brexit beer mats printed and distributed in Wetherspoon pubs.
He said: “In the run up to, and the aftermath of, the recent referendum, the overwhelming majority of FTSE 100 companies, the employers’ organisation CBI, the IMF, the OECD, the Treasury, the leaders of all the main political parties and almost all representatives of British universities forecast trouble, often in lurid terms, for the economy, in the event of the Leave vote.
"For example, claims were made by David Cameron and George Osborne that family income would eventually be reduced by £4,000 per annum, that mortgage interest rates would increase and that house prices would fall – claims which were supported, in terms, by Mark Carney of the Bank of England.
“City voices such as PwC and Goldman Sachs, and the great preponderance of banks and other institutions, also leant weight to this negative view. "
He also blasted the economists who had failed to predict the economic crisis, yet had had the confidence to forecast an economic downturn from a vote to leave.
Mr Martin added: “Just as the combined intellectual weight of the ‘good and great’ could not see through the flaws in the euro, they have, with honourable exceptions, been unable to see that the principle flaw of the EU – an absence of democracy – will almost certainly lead to further economic and political chaos, and to more dire consequences for those who are subject to EU decisions."
The chairman has also challenged 'Scare Story 2' - the doom-mongers who say a failure to secure a trade deal with the EU would be a disaster for Britain - and warned that trade deals with reluctant counterparties shouldn't be forced.
He said: "This is especially true of the EU – an organisation of Byzantine complexity, run by five unelected presidents, with input from numerous other parts of the many-headed Hydra.
"It has struggled to reach trade deals with most of the world’s major economies, for example, the USA, China and India…
"If the EU is keen for a trade deal, we should cooperate, but unelected apparatchiks like President Juncker can’t be controlled – which is one of the main reasons we voted to leave.
“Common sense … suggests that the worst approach for the UK is to insist on the necessity of a ‘deal’ – we don’t need one and the fact that EU countries sell us twice as much as we sell them creates a hugely powerful negotiating position."
The chairman urged Boris Johnson and David Davis to instead focus on chasing trade deal with the likes of India and New Zealand.
http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/709085/Tim-Martin-DESTROYS-Brexit-doom-monger-claims-and-says-UK-doesn-t-need-EU-trade-deal?
