Wetherspoon boss denies Brexit to blame for beer shortage

The owner of the Wetherspoon pub chain, Tim Martin, has denied that a beer shortage at his venues has anything to do with Brexit.

In a statement on Thursday afternoon (September 2), Martin blasted “innacurate” reports that he said were “strenuous efforts” to link supply chain issues with Brexit.

Martin said that his pubs weren’t actually short of beer, but that a minority of the 23 products sold on draught were running low on stocks – and that this could be attributed to industrial action by drivers and warehouse staff acting on behalf of Heineken.

Martin said: “Strenuous efforts are being made to link supply issues to Brexit.

“In this case the main link relates to industrial action – Brexit gave the power to the UK Government to allow more HGV drivers in, should it choose to do so.

“There are supply chain issues in many EU countries following the pandemic. It has been widely reported that there are shortages of 400,000 HGV drivers in Germany, France and Spain, for example, and Germany, in particular, is struggling with major worldwide supply chain issues.

“As an aside, it is interesting to note that a recent BBC report on McDonalds running out of milk shakes hardly mentioned Brexit and its report on shortages at Nandos did not mention Brexit at all. By the same token, a BBC report, a fortnight ago, on beer supply issues in Scottish pubs did not mention Brexit either. However, the BBC report on Wetherspoon refers to Brexit in the headline.”