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A man who donated more to the Brexit campaign than anyone else has lost an estimated £400 million in a stock market meltdown following the referendum.

But billionaire Peter Hargreaves, who founded financial advice firm Hargreaves Lansdown, said he had no regrets after shares he owns plummeted in value in the wake of the vote to leave the EU last Thursday.

He said: “I didn’t do this for personal gain. I thought it would first and foremost be good for Britain.”

Mr Hargreaves, 69, gave £3.2m to the Leave.EU campaign, making him the biggest individual donor to the campaign for Brexit.

Now retired, he owns nearly a third of shares in Hargreaves Lansdown, totalling about £2 billion.

Since Thursday the share price has fallen from £13.89 to £10.56, wiping out £400m from his holding.

Mr Hargreaves told the Guardian: “The shares have suffered a fallout just as everything else has. Hargreaves Lansdown has fallen quite a lot.”

He also welcomed a fall in the pound, which has dropped to its lowest level against the dollar in 31 years.

He said: “It will be the biggest stimulus for British business that I’ve seen since 1992. For FTSE 100 companies, many of whom make their earnings abroad, when those earnings are translated into sterling, it’s going to make them very profitable.

“After we left the exchange rate mechanism in 1992, we rose from the ashes like a phoenix, and by 1997 had a trade surplus and a balanced budget. Why should it be any different now?”

Political chaos has also followed last week's Brexit poll, which saw the UK vote to the leave the EU by 52-48.

Last night defiant Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addressed huge crowds outside Parliament as he fended off calls to resign following a mass walk-out of his shadow cabinet over his apparently lack-lustre campaigning role during the EU referendum.