Superdry’s co-founder Julian Dunkerton has pledged £1 million to a group campaigning on a referendum on the final Brexit deal.
In an interview with The Sunday Times Dunkerton said he had granted the People’s Vote its largest individual donation, as campaign groups on both sides prepare for the autumn spending spree ahead of the most critical phase of Brexit negotiations.
Dunkerton’s donation will reportedly go towards one of the biggest polling operations ever undertaken in the UK, which he says will provide a “genuine chance to turn this around.”
“If Brexit had happened 20 years earlier, Superdry would never have become the global success that it did,” he told The Sunday Times.
“I’ve got a good instinct for when a mood is going to change and we’re in one of those moments now.
“It’s becoming clear now there is no vision for Brexit and the politicians have made a mess of it. Increasingly, the public knows Brexit is going to be a disaster. Maybe they just need to be given that little bit of hope that comes when they see how opinion is moving.
“I will be paying for one of the most detailed polling exercises ever undertaken by a campaign so more and more people have the confidence to demand the democratic right for their voice to be heard — to get a people’s vote on any Brexit deal or the outcome of these negotiations.”
He is not the first senior retail figure to criticise the government’s handling of Brexit, with Asda’s chief executive Roger Burnley calling for “certainty and to know what is happening” last month.
The former owner of House of Fraser, Sanpower’s Yuan Yafei also stated that he wanted a “definite signal” from Theresa May about the kind of Brexit the UK wants, while Ikea UK’s country manager Gillian Drakeford demanded “clarity”.
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