WPP’s Martin Sorrell warns of economic slowdown following Brexit

WPP’s boss Martin Sorrell has said he is “very disappointed” that Britain had voted to leave the European Union and warned the decision would slow economic activity for adland.

“I am very disappointed, but the electorate has spoken,” he said in a statement.

“The resulting uncertainty, which will be considerable, will obviously slow decision-making and deter activity. This is not good news, to say the least.

“However, we must deploy that stiff upper lip and make the best of it. Four of WPP’s top ten markets are in Western Continental Europe and we must build our presence there even further. It just underlines the importance of implementing our strategy: fast-growth markets (BRICs and Next 11), digital, data – and horizontality, which ironically means getting our people to work together, not apart!”

The London stock market plunged more than 8% following the UK’s vote to leave the EU. In the opening minutes of trade, the FTSE 100 index fell more than 500 points to 5,808.72.