Wetherspoons' Leave push brings in the punters

Pubs chain Wetherspoons today appeared to have benefited from the referendum, where its founder and chairman Tim Martin campaigned hard for Leave.

It distributed 800,000 magazines containing Remain and Leave arguments from top politicians.

Martin said: “It was a huge issue and we decided that if there was going to be a debate around the vote we wanted it to take place in our pubs. In fact that seemed to have a slightly more beneficial effect than the football did.”

Wetherspoons’ sales rose 4% in the 11 weeks to last Sunday, up from the 3.2% seen in the first 39 weeks of its financial year.

The pubs chief warned against extrapolating anything from such a relatively short period but added: “We anticipate a modestly improved outcome for the full year."

“By voting to restore democracy in the UK, I believe the UK’s economic prospects will improve, although it is quite possible that the unprecedented and irresponsible doom-mongering may lead to some kind of slowdown," Martin said.

Shares in Wetherspoons jumped 19.5p to 762p.