Licensee threatened over EU flag

Rodda Thomas of the Crown and Sceptre in Stroud, Gloucestershire, had put the European Union flag up before the referendum and held a party to urge people to vote 'remain'.

Brexit

He said: “Someone phoned the pub at 8am on Friday and said you can take your flag down, if you don’t, the people of England will take it down for you.”

Thomas admitted he was sad at the Brexit outcome of the referendum, and explained the threat didn’t worry him too much as “you have to have a pretty thick skin in this job”.

Union flag

He did replace the EU flag with a Union flag and flew it at half-mast following the Brexit result but has now taken down the flag all together.

The licensee admitted he forgot to write down the telephone number of the person who made the threat and by the time he remembered, he was unable to redial as he had already called out.

He added: “It was vile.”

A poll conducted by the Publican's Morning Advertiser ​found licensees were in favour of Brexit​.

Chief executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) Kate Nicholls said business must continue as normal​ following the Brexit outcome.