Beer boss calls for UK to remain in EU after Leave '˜lies'

Lord Karan Bilimoria, who is also a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, told the Press Association that the public was “conned” in the run-up to the vote and slammed the inaction of the Electoral Commission.

He said: “The public have been conned. What I want to know is, what were the Electoral Commission doing?

“They should have stepped in and stopped the Leave campaign from spreading outright lies, about £350 million for the NHS and other appalling mistruths.

“I think on that basis alone the vote should be reconsidered, the stakes are too high.

“I believe and hope we can still stay in.”

Lord Bilimoria, who still chairs Cobra and is also founding chairman of the UK India Business Council, added that the idea Britain has regained control following the result is a “joke”.

He said: “The Leave campaign called June 23 ‘independence day’, I call it the day the UK shot itself in the foot.

“It’s a disaster, self-inflicted and completely unnecessary. It’s a joke, we’ve lost control. The pound has fallen to levels not seen since I first arrived in the UK from India, when Britain was seen as the sick man of Europe.”

He also pointed to the fact that the referendum is advisory only, and that people will begin to “wake up when it starts to affect them”.

The boss at Yorkshire-based events company Dine, Daniel Gill, made a similar pronouncement in the wake of the vote last month.

Mr Gill said the margin of the vote had been too narrow and that the debate in the run up to the vote had failed to adequately inform voters of the choice being offered to them.