Pimlico Plumbers founder says UK has ‘proper lazy people’

Liz Truss, the Conservative leadership frontrunner, has recently hit headlines after a leaked audio revealed the politician criticising UK workers’ “graft” ethics.

A recording leaked by the Guardian revealed that Truss believes Brits lack “skill and appreciation” compared to their foreign rivals.

Truss said in the clip: “Essentially, it’s partly a mindset and attitude thing, I think. It’s working culture basically. If you go to China, it’s quite different, I can assure you.”

The comments were made when Truss was the chief secretary to the Treasury, which she upheld until 2019.

Now, one employer has spoken out supporting Truss’ claims that employees in the UK need “more graft”.

Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers, recently appeared on the Jeremy Vine show on Channel 5, where he stated that there are a number of people “who don’t want to go to work”.

He added that even when these individuals do go to work, “they’re not working”.

“I’m going by my own experience over the last 40 years, and we’ve got some proper lazy people out there,” Mullins explained.

“And, you know, they don’t want to retrain. And when you suggest to them youngsters do an apprenticeship, they don’t want to know because they’ve got money coming in from their family.

“They’ve got all the luxuries they need, so they’re not prepared to do it. I mean, things have changed massively over the last 30-40 years and we’re in a terrible position for it.”

During the segment on the show, Owen Jones, a newspaper columnist clashed with Mullins over his views.

He pointed out that while Mullins was slamming supposedly “lazy” workers, he himself was working from home. Jones said: “You complain about British workers working from home, but you’re always at home every time you’re on this show.”

He pointed out that last year over 3.8m workers also put in hours of overtime without being paid for their efforts.

The clip featuring Mullins on the TV show was shared on Twitter via @JeremyVineOn5, which has gone on to receive criticism too.

For example, Twitter user @claresellars3 wrote: “I’ve worked with British workers who work hard, I’ve worked with lazy ones. I’ve worked with workers from other countries who work hard and lazy ones. Stereotyping nationalities doesn’t help. We do need to be more productive not work harder, just smarter.”

Another user simply branded it “awful”, while another claimed that workers “are not lazy, we just want to be paid our worth for our labour”.

This isn’t the first time Mullins has caused a stir, as in 2021 he likened parents who work at home to those who cheat benefits.

Speaking on the Jeremy Vine show again he stated: “People that are working from home that can go to work is equivalent to drawing benefits when they should be going to work.”

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