A Tory donor who helped fund the legal challenge to the government’s Brexit plans has predicted Theresa May will be forced from office within two years because of the economic consequences of leaving the EU.

Charlie Mullins, the founder of the London-based company Pimlico Plumbers, said the prime minister and other senior Tories had isolated themselves from core Conservative businesspeople and sacrificed the public good for their careers.

Speaking on the eve of the result of the government’s supreme court challenge to the ruling that May must consult parliament to trigger article 50, Mullins’s comments are a reflection of growing splits within the Conservative business community over Brexit.

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May has previously posed for photographs with Mullins and visited the headquarters of his business in south London.

“I don’t think that Theresa May is going to be around in two years once the EU negotiations kick in,” he said. “She is setting this up but someone else will have to pick up the pieces when it all goes really wrong.

“When she goes, the damage will have been done and its going to take a long, long time to get back to where we are today. People in business just cannot believe that she is cutting us off from a market of 500 million people.”

Mullins, 63, plans to attend the supreme court on Tuesday where the government is expected to lose its appeal in a case brought by the City businesswoman Gina Miller. He said he had contributed more than £80,000 towards the legal challenge, which could force May to hold a parliamentary vote to begin the process of Brexit.

A House of Commons rebellion looks unlikely, but the ruling could bring fresh complications for the government if it touches on the issue of devolution.



Interviewed at his business headquarters in Oval, Mullins said he expected the judgment to go against the government. “I would be very very surprised to see it go the other way. It would be a miscarriage of justice,” he said.

“If the judgment is as expected, I want MPs to get together and get us the best possible deal. At least its going to be more transparent.”



A security guard has been posted outside Mullins’s offices after he received death threats from individuals claiming to be Brexit supporters.

He said he had no regrets. “I think this is money well spent. I’m thinking about my children, my grandchildren, the future of the country. People are going to thank people like me and Gina Miller further down the line,” he said.

If the government’s appeal is successful, he said he would not fund other legal challenges. “There’s no point in fighting it again and again. If 11 top judges can’t come up with the right decision what is the point of fighting on?”



Turning to Tory infighting over the leadership after the referendum vote and David Cameron’s resignation, he said senior Tories including May and the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, have been focused on their careers, not the public good.

“They haven’t gone through with all this for the country, they have done it for personal reasons, because they wanted top jobs in government. It is our children who are going to have to pick up the pieces,” he said.



Mullins, given an OBE under Cameron and who has given more than £30,000 to the Tories, added: “I don’t think I’m going to get the knighthood now.”