Financier and Brexit backer Stuart Wheeler
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 538 Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2019
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brexit represents a political gamble played for the highest of stakes. If Britain leaves the EU without a deal there will be significant economic disruption, even the most ardent Brexiteers acknowledge that. But they believe the potential rewards justify the risk. Stephen Sackur speaks to Stuart Wheeler, a successful businessman and lifelong gambler who backed his commitment to Brexit with plenty of his own cash. Has his money given him undue influence over Britain’s future?
Image: Stuart Wheeler (Credit: Yui Mok/PA Wire)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:04.1 | This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:06.9 | Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. |
| 0:09.6 | I do hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:11.8 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:16.4 | My guest today is a lifelong gambler who, thanks to calculation and luck, has won more than he's lost. |
| 0:25.5 | Stuart Wheeler began life with the odds stacked against him. |
| 0:29.0 | Some 84 years ago, he was an unwanted baby, given away for adoption. |
| 0:34.3 | His first stroke of luck came in the form of his adoptive parents who were loving and well |
| 0:39.5 | to do and gave their son a privileged upbringing which saw him educated at Eaton and Oxford University. |
| 0:46.6 | He tried his hand at the law and banking, but his real calling was gambling, poker, roulette, |
| 0:53.1 | blackjack, bridge, horse racing, anything that he could bet on, he would. |
| 0:58.2 | Eventually, betting made him his fortune. |
| 1:00.9 | He created a spread betting company, IG, which eventually floated on the London Stock Exchange and made his fortune. |
| 1:08.4 | He used the money to fund his growing interest in politics. First, it was |
| 1:13.1 | the Conservative Party, including a record gift of five million pounds, but increasingly it was Brexit. |
| 1:21.2 | Stuart Wheeler has devoted much of his recent life to backing the Brexit cause. He is the |
| 1:26.8 | inveterate gambler who sees Brexit, even a no-deal Brexit, |
| 1:31.8 | as a winning bet on Britain's future. But what if he's wrong? Has his money given him undue influence |
| 1:39.1 | over Britain's future? Well, he joins me now. Stuart Wheeler, welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. Would it be fair to |
| 1:47.6 | characterize you as a lifelong risk taker? Yes, it would. And what motivated you from a very early |
| 1:56.8 | age to want to take so many risks? Well, I didn't know. The first risk I took, I was very, |
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