Brexit: WPP boss Martin Sorrell urges Government to ‘get Article 50 done quickly’

Sorrell said building trade agreements with EU countries and non-EU countries was a long-term task

A third of shareholders rebelled against Sir Martin's £70.4 million pay package in June (EPA)

Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world’s largest advertising group WPP, said the Government needs to get on with Brexit and start dealing with the details surrounding Britain’s decision to leave the EU.

Sir Martin, who firmly campaigned for the Remain camp, said the process of leaving the EU will be long and uncertain as UK businesses and the Government disagree over the strategy to adapt.

“British business wants certainty and resolution while the Government wants to string it out," he told the Evening Standard.

“The process around Article 50 and withdrawal will last a long time when, from a business point of view, people want it to be done quickly,” he added.

Despite his comments WPP seems to have felt little of the negative impact of the Brexit vote.

The advertising group reported better-than-expected first half results with revenues jumping 11.9 per cent to £6.5bn and headline profits up 16 per cent at £690m.

WPP also revised its growth forecasts revenues up from “over 3 per cent” to “well over 3 per cent”.

Sir Martin accepted that the results were “very strong” but said that WPP had to “grind them out in a difficult environment”.

He suggested results might have been even stronger without the referendum.

WPP’s strong results send the company’s shares up by more than 5 per cent to an all-time high on Wednesday.

The company’s shares have climbed 50 per cent from their post-Brexit vote low.

A third of shareholders rebelled against Sir Martin's £70.4m pay package, by voting against WPP's remuneration policy at an annual meeting in June

Sir Martin, currently the best paid CEO out of the biggest 100 British companies in the FTSE 100, previously said "if WPP does well I do well".