The founder and chairman of pub company JD Wetherspoon, Tim Martin, has today announced that he intends to visit more than 100 Wetherspoon pubs across the UK in the next two months to speak to customers and the local press about the huge economic advantages of leaving the EU on 29 March 2019 without a deal, and of adopting the free trade approach of countries like New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Israel.
These advantages will be lost, Mr Martin argues, if the government signs up for a deal with the EU, which keeps the UK tied in to the protectionist EU customs union.
Mr Martin said: “Now that the details of the appalling deal, negotiated by the Downing Street kitchen cabinet have become clear, it is certain the UK will be financially far better off by choosing no deal.
“The hard mathematics demonstrate beyond doubt that no deal leaves the public and the UK better-off on day one after Brexit.
“The UK will immediately gain by non-payment of the proposed £39 billion, for which lawyers have repeatedly confirmed there is no legal liability.
“No deal also allows parliament, on 29 March 2019, to slash import taxes (tariffs) on over 12,000 non-EU products, including oranges, rice, coffee, wine and children’s clothes.
“Ending these tariffs will immediately reduce shop prices to UK consumers.
“There is no loss of income to the government from slashing these tariffs, since the proceeds are currently remitted to Brussels.
“Most importantly, no deal allows the UK to regain control of historic fishing grounds, where 60 per cent of fish today are landed by EU boats.
Also, the UK will be more democratic. Democracy and free trade provide economic steroids for the future.
“In reality, Theresa May’s deal is a mechanism for remaining trapped in an undemocratic and financially inefficient system.”