Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin joins Andrea Leadsom for Brexit discussion

Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom has held her first Brexit roundtable with company bosses, including the no deal-supporting founder of the Wetherspoon pub chain.

The Leave-backer, who was promoted in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet reshuffle, was said to have stressed that the UK would be out of the EU by the October 31 deadline.

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said during the approximately two-hour meeting in Whitehall that the businesses were largely supportive of the message.

At the meeting was a director for Ineos, whose chief executive is billionaire Brexit-backer Sir Jim Ratcliffe, and Tate & Lyle Sugars’ Gerald Mason, who has welcomed Brexit for the sugar industry.

Also present was construction firm Laing O’Rourke, which believes that no deal poses no threat to the industry.

Other pro-Brexit figures who attended the meeting included Gerald Mason, senior vice-president at Tate & Lyle Sugars, who also runs the Brexit Golden Opportunity campaign which is against EU subsidies for beet sugar.

Ken Daly, chief executive of JML – a company set up by John Mills, former vice-chairman of the Vote Leave campaign – was also at the roundtable.

But one official stressed the meeting was supposed to bring together a broad church of voices.

Mr Martin told PA: “The Government side opened up by saying that we were definitely going to leave on October 31.

“My main pitch, which the room was strongly behind, is you may call it leaving if you sign a Withdrawal Agreement minus the backstop but the public won’t call it leaving.

“The acid test for leaving is whether you leave the customs union, and that was my pitch. And I was surprised that people were with me over this.”

Her position is a stark contrast to that of her predecessor, Greg Clark, who cautioned that a no-deal would cost “many thousands of jobs”.

After the meeting, Ms Leadsom said: “The businesses I met with today agreed that we must take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead: in innovation, new AI technologies, clean growth and the extraordinary scientific advances in which Britain is already leading the way.

“They also spoke about the benefits of doing away with certain EU red tape that has a strangle hold on productivity.

“While there are challenges, business leaders were optimistic and clear that none are insurmountable.”

Also at the meeting were Scottish Power, BAE Systems and Tangle Teezer.

The Government spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, has warned that no deal could force the UK into recession and increase borrowing by £30 billion a year even under a conservative estimate.

The backstop emergency measure to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland remains a major point of contention for the UK in leaving with a deal.

The PM and his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, clashed over the issue during their first phone call with Mr Johnson as leader.

The Taoiseach said the backstop was essential as a “consequence of decisions taken in the UK”, while Mr Johnson warned that it had to be abolished, according to officials.