BREXIT-BACKING pub tycoon Tim Martin is in line for a knighthood in the King’s New Year Honours list, according to reports.
The founder and boss of Wetherspoons has been nominated for services to business, according to MailOnline.
The chain is one of the country’s biggest pub firms with 875 sites across the UK.
Business secretary Kemi Badenoch (below) reportedly pushed for Martin’s candidacy behind the scenes, arguing it is wrong for successful entrepreneurs to be overlooked because they supported Brexit.
Nigel Farage has already welcomed the news, hailing Martin as a “Brexit legend” while Jacob Rees-Mogg said he was “delighted”.
Martin backed a hard-line approach to Brexit, arguing the economic impacts were worthwhile trade-offs for greater democracy in the UK.
Asked in June whether or not he had any regrets about the referendum, the pub boss told LBC: “Have I regrets? No, I think, for humanity to survive, I think we need democracy. We need democracy in China.
“We need democracy in Russia – especially in the nuclear age – and my bone to pick with the EU is you don’t elect the president by universal suffrage and MEPs can’t initiate legislation and the ECJ, the court, isn’t accountable to parliament.”
Martin previously grabbed headlines when he told staff to go to work at Tesco amid uncertainty over their futures due to the pandemic.
He indicated the company would not continue to pay employees who weren’t working after pubs in the UK were forced to close.
Instead, he said supermarkets were hiring and added: “I know that all our trade now has gone to supermarkets. Not only our trade, but the trade from cafes, leisure centres, restaurants.
“So we have had lots of calls from supermarkets – Tesco alone want 20,000 people to join them. That’s half the amount of people who work in our pubs.”
