Young Question Time member accuses Tim Martin of supporting Brexit to 'line his own pockets'

A young Question Time audience member has accused Tim Martin of supporting Brexit in order to 'line his own pockets' and has suggested he's 'lying' about the true reason he's supporting it.

Speaking to the pub chain boss, she claimed that he was not a 'man of the people', but that he was actually putting himself first.

In the powerful speech, she said:

This question is mainly for Tim Martin. It's interesting to see that you can patronise MPs and tell them they don't understand the trade deal that's going to come once we've left the EU where we can get things for cheaper from other countries. 

I think it's interesting that you are trying to say you are pushing this Brexit due to it being positive for the people, when it is clearly to line your own pockets.

You have come out in the newspaper to say that you want to reduce the taxes you pay, you want to reduce the wages you pay.

If you were really a person of the people you wouldn't.

She then went on to point out:

20,000 pubs have gone out of business since you started up the Weatherspoon's chain.

Finally, she added:

Business owners like himself lie about the reasons they support Brexit and say it is for the people when it is actually the equalisation you want on tax between pubs and supermarkets would hit the people the hardest.

After a prompt from Fiona Bruce, in which she said that because he'd been called a 'liar' he should be allowed to respond, Tim Martin said:

I think Boris Johnson said it was a minestrone of accusations, or something along those lines. 

What I said about MPs is they appeared not to understand the nature of the European Union, which is basically a protectionist system, which charges tariffs on wine, rice, oranges, bananas and many other things. So people in the shops pay more. And that is a point that hasn't come out.

So we're able, if we leave the EU, to reduce those tariffs and reduce the prices in the shops, not for people who run big businesses like myself, but for everyone, including me.

When the clip was shared to Twitter, it quickly went viral.

Many applauded the audience member for her point of view.

However, some called out Fiona Bruce on her 'preferential' treatment of Martin over the audience member.

And others took Martin's side in the debate.

Martin went on to praise a no-deal scenario as a way to benefit 'everyone', and not just himself, as the audience member had suggested, and he called on British politicians to stop 'demonising' a departure from the EU without a deal.

According to the BBC, in the instance of a no-deal Brexit, the price of medicine might increase; importing goods from the European Union might become more expensive; and there could also be a slow-down in the housing market, causing a crash of up to 30 percent in house prices.

Well, that certainly sounds like it will benefit 'everyone', doesn't it, Tim?

HT New European

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