His own blue Bentley, with personalised number plates, is in the car park of the pub where he is holding court. It's one of a few rants running freely in the alcove of the West Sussex hostelry: from the 'nonsense' of working from home to the current Government 'shambles' which has tested the entrepreneur's lifelong Tory allegiance and put the brakes on his party donations.

Liz Truss's resignation came as a relief for Mullins, 69, whose hopes of a Margaret Thatcher 2.0 were dashed by the policy U-turns on a mini-Budget that initially impressed him. 'Lowering corporation tax offered a strong incentive for business to invest, and reversing it showed weakness and lost people's confidence,' he says. He would welcome Sajid Javid as her replacement and Rishi Sunak as Chancellor. 

'When somebody makes mistakes or is not the person for the job, the quicker they go the better. But whoever becomes leader, the party needs to start backing them and drinking from the same tea pot. They can turn it around if they're honest, direct and stand by their decisions.' 

Straight talking is of course his own modus operandi. Not that he would fancy the top job himself, citing the damage of Brexit and Boris's misdemeanours as too much of a challenge. His frustrations could soon be channelled into direct action when he stands in the next London mayoral election in 2024, though admittedly he is an unlikely winner.

With a £210 million fortune and some strong opinions, he has flirted with politics before, notably as a business adviser to David Cameron during the coalition years. Yet only now, following the £145 million sale of his business to US home services giant Neighborly last September, does he feel better placed to pursue his ambitions. 

“If the Tories have a brain, they'll sign me up [as a candidate] but I'll probably run as an independent,' he says, with his sparkling white teeth and a deep tan befitting a self-made millionaire who flits between his £10million Thames penthouse and a villa in Marbella.

“I was going to run before, but I knew that with every policy and idea I'd been trying to put in place, people would say it's just to benefit my own business. Now I feel I've got more of a free rein.”

It's hard to imagine Mullins holding back from anything he wants to do. Recognition from fellow drinkers is met with a cheery raise of his pint. He says people know him wherever he goes. “Happens all over the world. There aren't many plumbers that can say that.”

The business which began as a one-man band in a basement in 1979 with a second-hand van has been a triumph of brand power, with Mullins a willing public face.