Pub operator JD Wetherspoon has today placed 500,000 beer mats in its pubs with a hard-hitting message on Brexit to parliament.
The beer mats will be available in each of the company’s 895 pubs in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The message calls on Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, Vince Cable and MPs to stop messing about and endorse Wetherspoon’s three point manifesto.
It states that the UK should unilaterally grant rights of citizenship to legal EU immigrants.
Additionally, it points to the fact that the EU currently charges taxes on food imported from outside the EU, and that from 2019 the government can and should eliminate these import taxes- which will also mean that EU food imports will continue to be tax-free.
Wetherspoon argues that this will result in a reduction in food prices in shops and pubs.
The manifesto also says that from March 2019 the government should stop paying the EU £200 million per week, stressing that the money disappears into EU coffers which have not been audited properly since 1994.
Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin, said: “There has been a coordinated campaign to dupe the public. For example, David Tyler, the chairman of Sainsbury’s, recently told the Sunday Times that imported food prices could rise by 22% 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 EU imposes huge taxes on food imports from the rest of the world. World Trade Organisation rules, contrary to the urban myth, allow the U.K. to follow free trade champions like New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, which have drastically reduced or eliminated these taxes.
“Wetherspoon calculates that it will save an average of 3.5 pence per meal and 0.5 pence per drink if we leave the EU and abolish food import taxes in March 2019 – similar savings are likely to be made on meals consumed inside or outside the home in the UK . These savings will be lost in a ‘transitional deal’, since tariffs on non-EU food will still apply. There is absolutely no doubt that food prices will be cheaper without a deal, if the UK chooses the free trade option.
“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.”