Charlie Mullins has sparked debate among expats in Spain for his views on immigration following an appearance on LBC radio.
The millionaire founder of Pimlico Plumbers was interviewed by Ben Kentish to discuss why so many wealthy people are leaving London.
It came after a report said the city had fallen out of the top five richest cities in the world.
Mullins, 72, told Kentish that he left the UK when Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party won the general election in late 2024.
Among his grievances were their plans for the economy and a series of planned ‘tax raids’ on the rich.
Speaking to Kentish yesterday, Mullins also suggested he was fed-up with a lack of action on uncontrolled immigration, during which he branded asylum seekers ‘illegal’.
Kentish stopped Mullins to insist that once migrants apply for asylum they are legal, under international law.
Mullins retorted: ‘Stop talking rubbish, they are illegal, they come here with no passport, or they dump their passport… why beat around the bush and talk rubbish all the time?… if they’re legal, why don’t they come here with that passports.’
Kentish said ‘many of them do have their passports’ and that they are ‘fleeing war and persecution.’
Mullins branded Kentish ‘clueless’ and insisted they move on the real problem of wealthy people fleeing the UK and no longer paying high amount of taxes to the nation’s coffers.
But Mullins’s comments sparked a backlash among some members of his newfound British community on the Costa del Sol in Spain. Mullins spends his time living between Mijas, near Marbella, and Dubai in the Middle East.
A clip of the immigration discussion was shared on an expat forum on Thursday night, with one Brit telling Mullins: ‘It’s not really any of your business who is granted entry to the UK, you buggered off to La Cala de Mijas.
‘If you love ‘your’ country so much – go home and fight for it.’
She later added: ‘His views on immigration and refugees are repugnant… he’s a migrant himself, obviously thinks he’s better because of the wonga.’
The post was met with some support, with one saying of Mullins: He’s like a guy who would complain if a Spanish family moved in beside him in La Cala.’
Others branded him a ‘horrible man’, while one added: ‘Seen him in La Cala when l lived near there, what a k***head he is.’
But many commented in support of Mullins, with one saying: ‘No. He’s 100% right England has sold out. Well said Charlie!’
Another wrote: ‘I genuinely think he’s for the people, wants kids to be in work and get proper apprenticeships, set goals and get some money in their pocket.
‘As for the ‘refugees’, he’s probably like the rest of UK tax payers, sick of the elderly, ex service men and women and vulnerable people being left with less and less money because of tax rises to pay for many things along with housing and keeping ‘refugees’, sure there are genuine ones but they bring their families too.’
A British commenter said it was unfair to brand Mullins a hypocrite, adding: ‘The immigration he’s referring to is incomparable to the type of UK ‘immigrant’ that relocates to Spain.’
