Brexit: Wetherspoons' boss Tim Martin says experts wrong on EU for 30 years

JD Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin today took another swipe at anti-Brexit commentators and their “Michael Fish moment” talk, as he raised a glass to a rise in sales at his pubs empire.

The Brexit campaigner savaged recent comments from the Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, which compared financial forecasts with the famously inaccurate prediction by the weatherman, ahead of the UK’s great storm of 1987.

Martin said: “Michael Fish’s predictions were a misinterpretation of data on one evening, under great time pressure” adding that the majority of politicians and economists has “consistently misunderstood the implications of the euro, its predecessor, the exchange rate mechanism, and the implications of leaving the EU, over a period of about 30 years”.

He welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan, and told the Standard: “It’s time to leave the club, but be good friends [with members].”

Shares in Wetherspoon rose 21.5p to 923.5p, after it revealed sales at venues open for more than a year increased 3.2% in the 12 weeks to January 15.

But the company warned of significantly higher costs and lower sales in the next six months.