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news
Charlie MullinsPimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins suspended from Twitter after posting that “someone should kill” Sadiq Khan over ULEZ
Charlie Mullins, the Pimlico Plumbers founder who claimed in 2020 that “cycle fascists” were making van journeys longer, has been suspended from X, formerly known as Twitter, after posting a series of tweets attacking and appearing to threaten London mayor Sadiq Khan over this week’s expansion of the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone, writing that “it’s time to dump the Muslim mayor” and that “someone should kill him”.
Mullins’ racially charged tweets were posted within ten minutes of each other on Sunday night, two days before the ULEZ – inside which motorists are charged £12.50 a day for driving older, non-compliant, high-polluting vehicles – was extended to outer London, following months of political debate, protests, furious online discourse, and legal challenges over a policy described by Labour mayor Khan as “not easy but necessary to reduce the capital's toxic air pollution”.
Replying to tsuk78639968’s tweet calling for Mullins to stand at the next mayoral election, to “make London what it used to be”, the 70-year-old multimillionaire businessman tweeted: “I am on it, and it’s time to dump the Muslim mayor”.
Nine minutes later, Mullins replied to ChrisFi65328659’s post claiming that the “government is doing nothing to stop” Khan, tweeting: “Someone should kill him”.
The posts have led to Mullins’ account being suspended by X, due to a “violation” of the social media platform’s rules.
road.cc has contacted Mullins’ representatives about the suspension, but is yet to receive a response.
The posts, which have been described by other Twitter users as “racially motivated hate speech”, aren’t the first time Mullins has been put under the spotlight due to inflammatory comments concerning travel policies.
In 2020, the then-boss of Pimlico Plumbers, one of Britain’s largest plumbing firms, commissioned a Transport for London parody poster of a cyclist struggling to carry tools, which claimed that people on bikes were “taking f***ing liberties”.
An additional blog post, shared on the company’s website, then took aim at cycling infrastructure and “cycle fascists”, which Mullins’ PR team claimed were responsible for increasing the length of van journeys in the capital.
“I’ve had enough of cycle fascists whining about their precious road space when what they really want is to run all non-cycles off the road,” the blog, written in the first person as if by Mullins himself, said. “And I’m also sick of the bike bureaucrats who have taken over TFL, and who as we speak are painting great swathes of Central London’s roads blue, making it next to impossible to run any kind of service business.
“Businesses like mine, and many others that rely on the transport of large amounts of equipment, tools and goods about the city cannot operate on bicycles. It is a ridiculous proposition. Any fool can figure out it doesn’t work. And please don’t tell me to get a cargo bike because unless they are the size of a van or a lorry and can be made secure they are exactly as useful as a chocolate teapot.”
> Pimlico Plumbers worker caught using phone at the wheel by Cycling Mikey
The blog, which was subsequently watered down following an online backlash, concluded: “London is a city of commerce but that cannot continue if we hand the roads to these freeloading helmet heroes who believe they have a god given right to the roads to the detriment of all other users.”
Less than a month after that controversial blog post, Pimlico Plumbers then posted a video to Twitter calling for help in tracking down a cycling “criminal” who allegedly kicked out at a wing mirror on the Mullins’ Bentley.
> Pimlico Plumbers appeal to catch cycling ‘criminal’ – but get accused of faking footage
However, a number of users called out the footage as fake, with one accusing the firm of staging a publicity stunt and a “false flag” attack to whip up resentment against bike riders.
Mullins sold the company to US home services group Neighborly in a deal worth up to £145 million in September 2021, though his son remained involved as chief executive.
> Bike shop owner – who owns nine cars – says ULEZ expansion will cause “chaos”
These latest highly controversial posts from the London-born businessman, a former donor to the Conservative Party and business advisor to David Cameron and George Osborne, appear to represent the darker side of the politically charged opposition to the extended ULEZ, a scheme branded by Boris Johnson – who introduced the policy to London in 2015 during his stint as London Mayor – as a “mad lefty tax” on “hard-pressed motorists”.
At the end of July, a legal challenge launched by five Conservative-led councils, who claimed that the extension was “illegal”, was quashed by the High Court, while this week’s implementation of the scheme has been marked by confusion and misinformation.
> Bike brands bank on ULEZ expansion – but will enlarged clean air zone boost active travel?
Following the High Court ruling last month, Simon Munk from the London Cycling Campaign told road.cc: “It’s really good news that London’s ULEZ zone is now set to expand in August. London must act on pollution, at too high levels across the capital, and the expansion will be a positive step in not only delivering cleaner air but enabling people to use alternatives to cars.
“The legal action came primarily from councils that are among those who have done least on delivering action on air quality, climate emissions and walking, cycling and wheeling… We hope the leaders of the London boroughs involved reflect on what they have cost their own residents, and more, on how they now need to work with the rest of London on delivering cleaner air, lower emissions, and to enable residents to ditch car journeys whenever possible.
“ULEZ expanding is another step in the right direction for a healthier, cleaner, greener London.”
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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103 comments
Absolute rubbish. You've clearly been living under a rock for a long, long time.
Do you think Rishi blames all the hate he gets on race? No, in the same way other politicians don't. I bet he's had a lot more death threats than Kahn
Just because it's your beloved Kahn, you seem to have this imaginary race hate/politics thing made up in your head.
I'm not saying there is an element of that, and its the same for all politicians. But it's not exclusively aimed at Kahn for a start.
You really haven't being paying attention have you?
Another band I saw at the Hope and Anchor back in.... I think...1977, or it could have been 78?
I preferred "Talking Bullocks" but I suppose its all a matter of personal taste.
Spot on with the analysis. Khan's race is undoubtedly being used to leverage anti ULEZ support. It is no different to Brexit where the vote was carried after a campaign that was clearly racist and xenophobic in tone. The facebook and instagram posts are a disgrace. I don't follow twitter/X. The Government are leveraging this with the goals of distracting from the state of the country and to get Khan out at the next election; they don't care about ULEZ or what it costs, as the correspondence from Grant Shapps demonstrates.
When I was growing up in the 1960's racism was rife and you knew the silent majority were also racist in their views. Today I believe the silent majority either aren't racist or are ambivalent, but they are complicit in racism by not speaking out.
Sadly the Conservative Party is still full of racists, it's why Truss got elected instead of Sunak. It's exemplified by the policies and utterances of Braverman and the silence from Sunak when challenged about her. And their argument that they are the most diverse cabinet ever (therefore they cannot be racist) holds no water, judge the words and the actions not the skin pigmentation.
The Conservatives have a stated goal of focusing on the things that divide us as a nation rather than those that unite us. The policy is to divide and conquer and damn the consequences. It is the only way they believe they can win the next election.
Are we talking about Start Trek, is this the Wrath of Sadiq Khan?
Because that makes sense if we are becuase that rather good actor but odious human Bendingberk Cucumberbap did knock a cyclist off his bike with his massive 4x4 a couple of years back - https://road.cc/content/news/259291-benedict-cumberbatch-slapped-cyclist...
Or maybe I've read this wrong, should adjust my spoktacles?
I'm wondering how bad the Tory racism will get when Sunak loses the next election by a massive margin?
Pretty hefty, one imagines: there was a poll of Tory members during the 2019 leadership election (when Sadiq Javid was one of the candidates) in which 43% agreed with the statement "I would sooner not have a Muslim as prime minister of Great Britain" so one doesn't imagine they would be much kinder to any other non-Christian non-white person. Don't forget this is the party that refused to vote for Sunak as their leader even though he was the majority choice of their MPs and when the alternative was the manifestly unfit for purpose Liz Truss.
Laughable. Remind me which party has never elected a woman or somebody from a racial minority background to be its leader....
Or which party has had the most ethnic minorities in high ranking cabinet jobs for example.
I wonder how bad the Labour anti-semitism will be when Sunak wins the next election?
The Tory party for one, Sunak was declared unopposed without an election. When he did try to get elected the party chose Liz Truss instead of him, that tells you something about how much the members want him.
Err, what about Benjamin Disraeli, the first PM from an ethnic minority who was Conservative then?
Also - it's not declared, elected unopposed. Only because a female candidate who was also in the running, pulled out.
Not to mention that in the leadership race to replace Johnson, half the contenders were women, and half from an ethnic minority background.
Ah well then, if you're counting Jewish as an ethnic minority (something that is fiercely debated within Judaism) then Labour has had Ed Milliband, so your accusation that Labour have never elected an ethnic minority leader is false. Do you need a plaster for that foot in which you've just shot yourself?
Sorry, please remind me when Ed Miliband was the Prime Minister?
Just proves lefty labour is anti-semitic, racist and wholly unfit to lead a dog on a walk, let alone govern a prestigious country like England
No real comment required, your own words make you look stupid enough.
In fairness to those Tory party members, Truss did dress up like Margaret Thatcher which left them no option but to vote for her.
The Iron Weathervane
But have you seen who the Tories have put up to go against Kahn, they are trying even less hard than the lack of effort that went into Shaun Bailey.
They put more work into their lockdown busting partying.
Just looked up Wiki, and Boris made Bailey a Baron...
That statement is simply wrong. Have we had a ULEZ riot yet?
You do post some crap.
People don't riot anymore. They simply crawl out from under their bridge and post on Twitter/ other soical media.
Reading comprehension needs a bit of work there. I didn't say it was the issue that has attracted the most violent or riotous response, I said it was the issue that seems to have attracted the most personal attacks on the politician implementing the policy rather than the policy itself. Try again.
If you want personal attacks, you only have to look to Labours "attack ads" on Rishi Sunak that even some Labour leaders don't agree with.
Not good at History either; the Conservative Party introduced attack ads to the UK and the Tory party alongside Saatchi & Saatchi benefitted greatly from them https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/saatchi-saatchi-the-agency-that...
I always felt that the Labour attack ads on our inglorious leader were more attacks on his nasty policies and hypocritical self-serving, employing many of those policies to enrich hisself and mates at large cost to the taxpayers and conditions of life for 99% of British subjects.
The media went to town on the man whose name is in your username.
I wasn't a paid-up fan but he was willing to offer far more for ordinary people of this country than those who preceded him or his successor so the media attacked at every opportunity. I got the impression that as a result of the media witch-hunt most people in this country never got to read or hear anything honest or truthful about him. Whether you agree or disagree with his policies is irrelevant, that is not the way to run a democracy or a 'free' press.
Really?? JC was willing to offer far more?
He isn't even in favour of arming Ukraine...straight away that's a far greater threat to our overall security and livelihoods let alone the damage he would have done to the country.
Oh Jeremy Corbyn for PM, has it been so long? I'm pretty sure you were offering everyone a modestly-priced cycle (or at least free trouser clips) and an expansion in the number of council bike sheds.
I understood exactly what you wrote - it's your comprehension skills that need work.
Blair and Iraq was not personal in the same way, many of us felt that he wanted to invade a country and start a war based on a dodgy dossier (and Dubya's desire for the USA to control the oilfields). Many thousands dead and Iraq is still a fucking mess, politically and environmentally. Unforgiveable but I don't see 'prominent' people calling for him to be killed.
And it appears that, unlike the invasion of Iraq, ULEZ is a good thing. Like the congestion charge, it will hurt some people's pockets, but it is probably the only way that such positive changes can happen.
The modest numbers protesting have been given prominent and repeated exposure in certain well-known media outlets, implying that the number of people who are strongly against the ULEZ expansion is far greater than the reality:
https://twitter.com/peterwalker99/status/1696781008975110417
Which is odd when apparently 90% of vehicles are compliant and London has a public transport provision that all the other people on this island can only look at and weep with frustration. And that's before we consider active travel.
The UK’s Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) estimates that 29,000 to 43,000 Britons over 30 die every year as a consequence of air pollution
https://twitter.com/TransportActio2/status/1690299334393270272
Air pollution is the largest environmental risk to public health - BMJ, 15 May 2023
https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1037
Air pollution causes harm to people at all stages of life
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-65296752
98% of schools in #London are in areas where air quality is considered #Toxic.
https://twitter.com/sabrodrigues61/status/1650704242657710081
https://www.mumsforlungs.org/our-campaigns/ulez
A total of 130,000 healthy years of life are lost to noise pollution in the UK each year alone, according to data from the UKHSA
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/19/light-and-noise-poll...
For a man who has definitely got a photographic memory you do seem to struggle with recalling things.
Targeting a figurehead politician at protests is pretty much par for the course, Thatcher even had protests at her funeral.
I don't recall any of the protests you show mentioning the fact that these politicians were Christians and I don't recall any death threats specific to those politicians and demonstrations being in the public domain at those times.
Did you actually read the article?
Can you read? He's responding to Rendell's claims.
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