It often seems like the European referendum campaign never really ended. Everything from budget forecasts to Britain’s Olympic performance is simply the cue for another round of In-or-Out arguments. But Simon Wolfson, the mild-mannered chief executive of the high street fashion chain Next, is trying to move things on. Having been one of the biggest business names in favour of leaving the European Union, his aim is to form a coalition between Leavers and Remainers to forge a certain type of Brexit.
‘There is a natural alliance between those people who voted Out but who believe in an open, free, tolerant economy and those people who voted to remain.’ Wolfson tells me when I meet him in Next’s London headquarters on the Tottenham Court Road. ‘That natural alliance forms an overwhelming majority of people in the country and it is their ethos and values that should dictate the future.’ This will be the next mission for the thinktank he now chairs, Open Europe.
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