Tim Martin
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Part of the Powerbase Brexit Portal. |
Timothy Randall Martin (born April 1955)[1] is a British businessman and the founder and chairman of the pub chain Wetherspoons. [2]
Martin was a major donor to the 'Vote Leave' campaign. He is also on the advisory board of the eurosceptic think-tank Open Europe.
Contents
Brexit supporter
Martin is one of Brexit's biggest financial backers and also one of the business world's most vocal supporters of it.
He donated £224,000 to the campaign to take the UK out of the EU.
He has described the Leave vote as a "new Magna Carta".
Brexit chats with drinkers
To make the case for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union Martin announced that he would visit drinkers in at least 100 of his Wetherspoons pubs to discuss the upcoming referendum over its membership. He told Sky News he had also printed hundreds of thousands of a special EU edition Wetherspoon News magazine, featuring arguments from both the 'leave' and 'remain' camps.
- The EU referendum is extremely important and I believe it is vital that voters are given the arguments both for and against, so they can make up their minds... [it] brings together a number of articles which I hope people will read and help them make up their mind on which way they are going to vote. I look forward to speaking with Wetherspoon customers during the next four weeks in our pubs across the UK as part of the EU referendum debate. [3]
Brexit backers suffer big losses
Martin suffered losses on his company shares as a result of market volatility triggered by Britain voting to end its EU membership.
He saw his 30 percent share in Wetherspoon's devalued by as much as £30 million in the week after the referendum. He argued, however, that: 'I am completely convinced Brexit will be extremely beneficial to the economy and markets will improve. As Warren Buffett says, if you aren’t willing to hold shares for 10 years, don’t hold for 10 minutes.' [4]
Affiliations
- Vote Leave - Donor
- Open Europe - Advisory board member to eurosceptic think-tank [5]
Donations
Recorded by the Electoral Commission:
| Date | Name of donor | Amount | Donated to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25/05/2016 | Tim Martin | £3,600.00 | Vote Leave |
| 04/04/2016 | Tim Martin | £12,000.00 | Vote Leave |
| 10/04/2016 | Tim Martin | £50,000.00 | Vote Leave |
| 29/04/2016 | TIm Martin | £150,000.00 | Vote Leave |
Notes
- ↑ Timothy Randall Martin, Companies House, Accessed 6 September 2016
- ↑ James Moore,'Don't shed too many tears for Tim Martin and JD Wetherspoon' 22 January 2015, Independent, accessed 19 May 2016
- ↑ 'Pub Boss to hold Brexit chats with drinkers', 24 May 2016, Sky News, accessed 24 May 2016
- ↑ Kate Burgess, 'Brexit backers hit by big losses on company shares', 29 June 2016, Financial Times, accessed 4 July 2016
- ↑ Open Europe Board, June 2016, OpenEurope, accessed 15 June 2016
- ↑ Electoral Commission, Tim Martin Donation Search, accessed 17 June 2016
