Entrepreneur behind Superdry fashion label hands £1m to Brexit referendum campaign

Julian Dunkerton says cash will pay for one of UK's biggest ever polling operations

The businessman behind the Superdry fashion label is donating £1m to the People’s Vote campaign for a new referendum on Brexit.

Julian Dunkerton said he was giving the money because there is “no vision for Brexit” being offered by the government.

It will be used to launch one of the biggest polling operations ever undertaken in UK politics, to bolster the campaign for a new public vote.

It also comes after The Independent launched its own Final Say campaign to demand a new referendum on the outcome of Brexit, with more than 660,000 having signed the petition.

Mr Dunkerton explained that Superdry would never have become the global success it did if Brexit had happened 20 years earlier, leading to burdensome customs and tariffs and making it difficult to open stores outside the UK.

He said: “I’m putting some of my money behind the People’s Vote campaign because we have a genuine chance to turn this around.

“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 that 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.”

Mr Dunkerton, 53, started out on £40-a-week through the Enterprise Allowance in the 1980s selling clothes from a market stall.

He left Superdry earlier this year to focus on other business interests after overseeing its growth into a global brand with more than 500 retail outlets, employing 4,500 people.

The money will help pay for the regular publication of “gold-standard” surveys of more than 10,000 voters at a time, as well as a series of others in different regions and sections of the electorate.

The Independent is also joining forces with the People’s Vote for a mass march through central London on 20 October.

The alliance will see the two organisations mobilise activists and media across the country to capture the growing tide of opinion that a further referendum on Brexit must be held.