Wetherspoons boss admits £10 pint possible as he says 'no limit' to price hikes... but he doesn’t regret Brexit
19 June 2023, 18:09 | Updated: 19 June 2023, 18:48
The boss of Wetherspoons has said there's 'no limit' on how high the price of a pint could go in the cost of living crisis but insisted he has no regrets around Brexit.
Tim Martin, boss of one of the UK's biggest pub chains, told Andrew Marr on LBC that pints will "quite probably" go up to £8 and when asked if they could one day cost a tenner, said "There's no limit."
Mr Martin famously pledged to slash the price of booze in his pubs to an “unbelievably low” price if ex-PM Boris Johnson managed to leave the European Union successfully by October 31 2019.
Mr Martin, 68, also said it’s a “bad idea” for pubs to start making their beers weaker to save on costs, but added: “We are going to try and avoid doing it [but] we might have to.”
“Brewers have jumped on the bandwagon [because] they can't resist the 25p tax break,” he added.=
Andrew asked Mr Martin: “Everybody at the moment, one way or another is struggling with inflation and rising prices, and some of the big breweries are diluting the alcohol content with their beers to avoid these charges, these extra charges.
“There's the old song from the 1930s, I’m the man, the very fat man who waters the workers’ beer, but I just wonder what your reaction is to the fact that your product in many cases is less strong than it was a few months ago?
Mr Martin replied: “Well, I think it's a crazy move. But again, it's financed by tax because if you bring beer down to 3.4%, which is much lower than almost any beer you ever buy in the pub, you get a big tax break on the basis that of the incredibly stupid reasoning that people will drink less alcohol if they drink weak beer.
“That's just not the way people are. So I think it's a bad idea. Brewers have jumped on the bandwagon, they can't resist a 25 pence tax break, but we are going to try and avoid doing it. Well, we might have... but we want the proper strength beers.”
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Asked about the prospect of an £8 pint, Mr Martin said: “There are certainly some pubs that do that and it's gone up more than you would imagine.
“Around the country - I go around the country visiting pubs and talking to our pub managers - whereas it’s not a fiver in our pubs, it's a fiver in a lot of pubs from Penzance to Wick at the moment.
“So yeah, the price has gone up a hell of a lot. Will it go to eight quid? Quite probably, if things go on as they are.”
"And one day that £10 pint?" Andrew asked.
"Andrew there is no limits," he replied.
Quizzed about his views on Brexit, as the Wetherspoons boss was a vocal supporter of leaving the EU, he said he has no regrets. "I'm amazed the depth of emotion," he says. "But I don’t think many people have changed their minds.”
"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 bones 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.”
"So it's a Democratic issue, not an economic one?" Marr asked.
Mr Martin responded: "Well, I think two things go together, which a lot of Remainers won't accept this. But I think the most powerful elixir for economics and for personal freedoms is democracy. And when you start reducing it, the level of economic performance eventually declines."
