Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) has been accused of breaching the Companies Act after failing to seek shareholder approval for spending on almost 2m pro-leave beer mats before the 2016 EU referendum. The pub chain spent £94,856 during the referendum campaign, comprising £18,000 on 1.5m “Brexit beer mats”, £8,400 on a further 200,000 mats, and £68,186 on another 200,000 mats, 5,000 posters and 500,000 booklets, Electoral Commission records show. Legal experts said shareholder approval was necessary because the spending constituted political expenditure under the 2006 legislation. JD Wetherspoon’s chairman and founder, Tim Martin, is one of the business world’s most vocal Brexit supporters and has used his pub chain as a platform for his views.
