JD Wetherspoon, which owns 830 pubs across Britain, has defended its right to ban large groups from entering any of its pubs after being accused of racism against Irish Travellers. Following a meeting of the Irish Travellers’ Movement in Britain at a nearby resource centre, a group of Travellers accompanied by a senior police officer, a priest and a solicitor were refused entry to the Coronet pub on the Holloway Road in London.

Inspector Mark Watson of the Cheshire constabulary has reported the matter to the police while the ITMB has written to JD Wetherspoon warning that they might take a civil action under the Equality Act. A spokesman for the pub chain emphasised that the group was refused due to its size rather than to its ethnic origins.

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