Charlie Mullins, the founder of Pimlico Plumbers sparked debate in a divisive appearance on The Jeremy Vine Show calling for a return to workplaces, despite rising hospitalisations and deaths due to Covid-19.
In the interview he likened parents who work from home to benefits cheats.
"People that are working from home that can go to work is equivalent to drawing benefits when they should be going to work," he said.
Asked by presenter Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije how this would impact children Mullins said: "Of course it's a bad thing for children to be at home and just see their parents working from home.
"They're not going to want to go into the work place.
"They're going to think that's the normal."
Charlie Mullins' Jeremy Vine interview
"You don't go to work, you sit at home watch Netflix, do all your chores and all that" he said.
"That's not everyone who works from home. Some people need to. But the people who don't need to work from home should go back into the work place and get the economy going.
However Mullins' argument comes amid increasing calls for a return to home working from scientists.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has said that stricter measures to tackle the virus should be ready for "rapid deployment".
The measures, which are being known as Covid plan B involve a reintroduction of mask wearing, encouraging people to work from home, the power to introduce vaccine passports and encouraging caution amongst the population.
Asked how Pimlico Plumber had responded to requests from employees to work from home during the peak of the pandemic, Mullins said: "We didn't allow anyone to work from home. Why would we?"
Host Ms Vanderpuije then asked: "Maybe because we're in the middle of a pandemic and because it reduces the chance of transition and the spreading of the virus."
Mullins responded: "The working from home situation is not fooling anybody. All these people keep saying its more beneficial and i can get more done. What they going to say?
"No I don't get more done: I have a cup of coffee, I go to the gym. I'm watching the telly. There's so many distractions. It's affecting people's mental health. It's affecting people's jobs.
"Do people not get it the more people who work from home the more people that are going to be unemployed?
He went on to say: “I’m not here to knock people working from home.”
To this, Ms Vanderpuije could be heard saying: “You’re kind of doing that though, aren’t you?”
Panellist and author Gemma Forte said: “I have many friends who have been working from home where it’s been very successful."
"I think this rhetoric is absolutely ridiculous, with all due respect Charlie, its also pernicious to blanket decide in your head how millions of people have been conducting themselves."
