Strictly Come Dancing contestant Thomas Skinner has reportedly failed to repay a £50,000 taxpayer-funded bounce back loan four years after receiving the emergency Covid support, despite publicly boasting about his businesses’ pandemic success.
The controversial reality star, who rose to fame on BBC’s The Apprentice in 2019, is facing fresh scrutiny after Companies House records suggest his Fluffy Pillow Company has not repaid the government loan provided in 2020. The revelation comes as the 34-year-old father-of-three faces mounting criticism over his Strictly casting following his meeting with US Vice President JD Vance and admission of marital infidelity.
Company filings show the Fluffy Pillow Company’s assets jumped dramatically from £1,301 to £51,301 between 2020 and 2021, coinciding with the bounce back loan scheme timeframe. These figures have remained static in the firm’s latest publicly available statements through 2022, raising questions about whether the taxpayer funds have been returned as required under the loan terms, which stipulated repayments should commence within twelve months.
The Essex businessman’s apparent failure to repay the loan stands in stark contrast to his public proclamations about thriving during the pandemic. In his 2023 autobiography, Graft: How To Smash Life, Skinner boasted: “The company grew quickly after I finished The Apprentice and did very well thanks to massive demand during the pandemic when everyone had money to spare and plenty of time to spend in bed.”
In December 2021, the market trader turned TV personality declared on social media: “Today I’ve turnt (sic) over £1.8 million pound in 1 year with BOSH BEDS!” He subsequently claimed to be securing “million-pound deals” before resigning as director of Bosh Beds in November 2022. The company was dissolved the following year after Companies House issued four separate liquidation notices due to lack of business activity.
Speaking on a podcast about his business failures, Skinner admitted: “Yes, I had been taking a lot of money. I was in a state,” adding elsewhere, “I kept all the guys on and kept trying to keep everything going.”
The businessman, who now sells mattresses from his van, complained in a since-deleted August post on X: “How do all these celebrities have loads of money? You don’t get bundles of dough for TV or adverts etc (well I don’t). But I look on Instagram and they’re always in this gaff or posting in a new motor. I finished me Strictly stuff earlier today and I’m now out in me van delivering mattresses.”
Comedian Katherine Ryan has become the latest celebrity to criticise Skinner after he admitted to having an affair shortly after marrying wife Sinéad Chambers in 2022. Ryan called the Strictly contestant a “hypocrite” on her podcast Telling Everybody Everything, taking particular issue with his claim that the infidelity had been “forgotten” by his spouse.
“It’s false. It’s ‘forgotten’, ‘forgotten’ is such really inflammatory term for me,” Ryan stated. “I think that for him, it seems forgotten, she forgave him and his life carried on as far as he’s concerned. I promise you, your wife has not forgotten.”
The comedian highlighted the vulnerability of Skinner’s wife at the time, noting she had just married and was raising three small children. “There’s also the layer of shame. A lot of women in this scenario absorb a man’s shame as their own,” Ryan explained.
Skinner’s Strictly participation has been mired in controversy since his casting was announced in August, hours after he posted about meeting Vice President Vance during the American politician’s Cotswolds visit. The businessman, who has publicly supported Donald Trump and posted wearing a Make America Great Again cap, described the encounter as “once in a lifetime.
BBC director-general Tim Davie was forced to defend the casting decision to MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee, stating: “Clearly, we wouldn’t take anyone whose views are just beyond the pale, or we would see as completely unacceptable or not suitable, racist views, all those things, we wouldn’t accept them.
The controversy intensified when Skinner stormed out of the show’s first press conference after grabbing a journalist’s phone that was recording the interview. He later apologised, claiming he had glimpsed messages about his past on the device’s screen which “caught me off guard.”
Skinner has also been accused of fabricating death threats after deleting a screenshot of an alleged direct message threatening to “kill him.” Despite claiming to be “public enemy number one,” the businessman maintains he has no regrets about meeting Vance, boasting the pair have been exchanging direct messages since their summer barbecue.
Since I posted that picture I’ve had loads of death threats,” Skinner told The Sun. People saying they want me dead, saying I am this political figure that I’m actually not.
The bounce back loan scheme was introduced by the UK government in May 2020 to help small businesses survive the coronavirus pandemic, offering loans up to £50,000 or 25 per cent of annual turnover. The scheme ultimately cost taxpayers billions, with the National Audit Office estimating fraud losses of up to £4.9 billion.
Under the original terms, businesses were given a twelve-month payment holiday before beginning repayments over six years at 2.5 per cent interest. The government paid the interest for the first year, with businesses expected to begin repayments by mid-2021.
Skinner’s business history includes a 2011 conviction for handling £40,000 worth of stolen goods, including nearly 5,000 Body Shop products and 2,000 diazepam tablets. He maintains he was unaware the stock was stolen, describing himself as “young and naive” for buying from an unknown source.
The businessman, who was privately educated at Brentwood School in Essex despite claiming working-class credentials, has courted political controversy with posts claiming London has “fallen” under Mayor Sadiq Khan’s leadership and that “it ain’t safe out there anymore.
Despite his financial struggles, various reports suggest Skinner’s net worth ranges between £1.5 million and £13 million, though these figures remain unverified. He continues to appear on Strictly Come Dancing, paired with professional dancer Amy Dowden, as the show faces its most controversial series to date.
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