28th Oct 2019 10:56
(Alliance News) - JD Wetherspoon has been accused of breaching the UK Companies Act after failing to seek shareholders approval for spending GBP94,856 on pro-leave beer mats before the 2016 EU referendum, the Guardian reported on Sunday.
The newspaper said the pub chain spent GBP18,000 on 1.5 million "Brexit beer mats", GBP8,400 on a further 200,000 mats, and another GBP68,186 on 200,000 more mats, 5000 posters and 500,000 booklets.
Legal experts said shareholder approval was necessary because the spending constituted political expenditure under the 2006 legislation, but JD Wetherspoon did not pass such a resolution.
The newspaper said companies are meant to declare annual political spending above GBP2,000 in their annual report, which JD Wetherspoon did not do.
JD Wetherspoon's chairman and founder, Tim Martin, who owns 32% shares in the company, is one of the most vocal Brexit supporters in the business world, and has used the pub chain to express his views.
Martin said his understanding was that the act did not require the spending to be approved in a shareholder resolution, the Guardian noted.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/27/jd-wetherspoon-may-have-breached-law-over-19m-brexit-beer-mats
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