JD Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin has weighed in to the EU debate to counter the high-profile intervention of Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, but could run in to trouble with the Electoral Commission.
The pub chain is to print 200,000 beer mats to be distributed across all 920 UK pubs which could violate electoral law if the company isn’t registered. The cost of printing and distribution the mats is likely to come close to the £10,000 threshold allowed for campaigning without being registered, something Vote Leave was quick to point out about Ryanair’s campaigning urging the commission to investigate.
The beer mats attack the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, raising questions about the effectiveness and motives of the IMF, which among other things, helped fund Greece’s bailout.
It reads: “The governance issues within the IMF, are, in my opinion, very serious for UK citizens. The government has paraded a number of financial institutions in front of the public, who have, in my view, grossly distorted our financial prospects in the event of a Brexit.”
Wetherspoon’s have made 200,000 Brexit beer mats to get drinkers to leave the EU https://t.co/fb4a5zDZs7 pic.twitter.com/aVSWiu3nxo
— Mirror Politics (@MirrorPolitics) May 31, 2016