Tim Martin of Wetherspoon’s: ‘For a while I was hated based on false information’

Tim Martin at the Moon Under Water in Watford, one of his chain’s 801 pubs. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Tim Martin owes an apology to the rightwing TV channel GB News. Earlier this year, the MP Lee Anderson – a presenter on the channel – suggested that shoplifters were not stealing food to eat but to make money selling it at Wetherspoon’s.

“We hit the roof, as you can imagine,” says the pub chain’s founder and chair.