Businessman Charlie Mullins insisted the fight “is not over yet” as he considers “legal action” after battling to keep his OBE. The Pimlico Plumbers founder was threatened with having his award stripped following a string of social media posts and TV comments dating back to 2022.

Despite the Honours Forfeiture Committee concluding that he could keep his OBE, Mr Mullins said he is continuing to meet with lawyers over the “bullying tactic”. The Forfeiture Committee first accused the Reform UK donor of “bringing the honours system into disrepute” in September, saying they were “minded to recommend to His Majesty that your OBE be revoked”. The 72-year-old now said he refuses to live in fear over “saying something wrong on X”.

He told the Express: “They are threatening me saying that we're going to keep this on record and at any time we can come back to you. It's not over yet.

“There's going to be more legal action from my side. I'm not prepared to face this again because I might say something wrong on X or I disagree with them. I've got freedom of speech.”

The committee made the threat over a controversial social media post made towards the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and a “misogynistic” comment made about the media personality Carol Voderman, which Mr Mullins said while on GB News. They also cited accusations that he made a racist joke at the British Curry Awards.

In the letter sent to the millionaire, the officials wrote: “While you apologised for your remarks in each case, the committee feels that this is a troubling pattern of behaviour.

“This behaviour is not of the standard expected of an honours recipient. The committee is therefore minded to recommend to His Majesty that your OBE be revoked.”

The OBE was awarded for services to the plumbing industry in 2015. Following this, he sold his business for an estimated £145million in 2021.

Mr Mullins believes the reason behind the move was due to him “leaving the UK and saying that Labour is going to ruin the economy,” adding that it was “politically motivated”.

“They are not qualified to do the job they're doing,” he said of the government. “They're unprofessional, they're telling lies, they're very deceitful and they're stopping freedom of speech.”

The businessman said he has spent “a lot of money” on lawyers who have “had three months of sleepless nights of this”.

Last week Mr Mullins was told no action would be taken following extensive submissions by lawyers - this includes undertaking “gender sensitivity and diversity training”.

A Government spokesperson said: "Claims that the Forfeiture Committee is politically motivated are completely unfounded and inaccurate. The Forfeiture Committee is entirely apolitical and no ministers or political appointees are involved in any of its decision making."