Price of a pint could hit £10, warns Wetherspoon boss

The boss of JD Wetherspoons has said pints could possibly cost as much as £10 due to the cost of living crisis.

Tim Martin, the founder of one of the UK’s biggest pub chains, also said he had “no regrets” over his well-known backing of Brexit despite concerns over the impact it has had on the economy.

Mr Martin told Andrew Marr on LBC, it’s a “bad idea” for pubs to start making their beers weaker in an effort to save costs.

“We are going to try and avoid doing it [but] we might have to,” he said. “Brewers have jumped on the bandwagon [because] they can’t resist the 25p tax break.”

When asked about the prospect of an £8 pint, he replied: “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.”

Questioned about the possibility one day of the price reaching £10, he responded: “Andrew there is no limits.”

Mr Martin made headlines when he famously pledged to reduce the price of alcohol in his pubs to an “unbelievably low” price if former Prime Minister Boris Johnson successfully managed to leave the European Union by October 2019.

When quizzed about his pro-Brexit views, he responded: "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.”