Dilemma

Difficult, but I would try to find someone else to do the work.

You don't know that someone else will provide an inferior service. I would not willingly employ someone again whom I knew to be racist.

Other contractor for sure

Get another tradesman. I’m sure there are many open-minded tradesmen, who will be glad of the job and will do it well.

I think you have to find someone else.
Ethical issues and moral stands aside - "that didn't stop him" is a red flag for anyone who is in your home.
When you ask around, I suggest that you don't go into much detail about his views - I would say 'He made me feel uncomfortable, and ignored what I said'.
That way you are a woman concerned for her safety in her own home, not a woke-eating tofuraty (or whatever the phrase is!)
Consider asking if Age Concern or a similar organisation has a Trusted Tradesman list.

I also think that if word got back to him that he made you feel uncomfortable he may view it differently.

Hear hear everybody it it not to be tolerated. This can be how hatred gets perpetrated, by not acting. Very very best to find another.

The not stopping is most definitely a red flag indeed.
For that reason alone I would find another workman.It is your home and your rules.

If he’s spending all his time chatting to you and passing on his racist views how is he an efficient workman? If you are not comfortable with a workman in your house for whatever reason you should not employ them. There are other workmen out there and I am sure you should be able to find one who is more respectful. I would never employ someone I did not feel happy to have in my house.

Thanks for the replies - really just supporting what I had already decided.

Apart from his lack of awareness that I didn't share his views or wanted to discuss them I feel to employ him again would be disrespectful to my late DH. So it is on with the search for another tradesman

Look on Checkatrade. We get all ours from there. Get 3 quotes and decide who you think will do the job properly and you’d feel happy having in the home.

Sorry but a racist wouldn’t be accepted in my house if he was the only tradesman in my town I couldn’t accept his help and I couldn’t pay him for his very vocal ideas
I cannot abide racists of any shape or form and they would NEVER come into my house twice
I m totally behind you find someone else as quick as you can don’t have him in your house however good a workman he is he’s got no judgement has he or he would have kept his vile views to himself

Would not be welcome in my home either, not just for his racist and ignorant views, but because when asked, he didn't have the courtesy to stop spouting his opinions in my home.

Find someone else ! In your position I wouldn't want him in my house.

I would tell as many people as possible that he has lost a job with you because he is racist in the hope it gets back to him.

remain in a different room!

lemsip

remain in a different room!

Why? Where do you draw the line?

We had someone to fit new windows in our conservatory. I couldn’t believe some of the racist stuff he was coming out with. Fortunately by the time we needed more windows he had retired. I wouldn’t have employed him again and OH agreed.

lemsip

remain in a different room!

How can you simply remain in one room when someone is working in your house? Or more to the point - why should you?

He's being paid to do a job, not run a campaign for the National Front, or whatever they call themselves now.

no comment on the OP as such, but just to say that i think if someone is working in your house, you should let them get on with it.
i've known several different tradesmen who found it annoying and distracting to have people hovering around when they are trying to get on with the job.
one was a man who was always reaching up to touch the leg of a decorator while he was up a ladder, with pretence of helping/offering tea/telling him to be careful etc.
decorator had to order him out of the room on the grounds of safety...

am not suggesting OP behaved like this.

Well that was a bit off piste welbeck no point in blaming wadesnan for not getting out the way of a sprouting racist
We have no idea if she just went in to offer him tea and biscuit and got caught up in his tirade do we ?

Drop him like a hot cake and make sure you let others know why

welbeck I only spoke to him when offering tea/coffee at which time he spent 20 minutes telling me his views - all while I was backing away. He launched into another diatribe when he was leaving - standing in the doorway so I couldn't shut it. I don't hover when people are working in my house and I certainly never touch them!!

No I wouldn’t have him in the house, either. Plenty of other nicer fish in the sea.

I would never let him darken my door again. Racism is evil.
I hope you find someone else .

Most of the trades I use are local people from various ethnic groups (I live in a very diverse area) and I dont give a damn about their views as long as they do the work to a professional standard. There are "ways of speaking" in a brisk clipped tone which discourage chit chat. Learned from many years of managing customers and client groups.

I leave tradesmen to get on with the work. I have a business to run so I go into my office and leave them to it. I usually direct them to where tea/coffee/cold drinks/the toilet are located and tell them to help themselves if they want a drink. That way they will finish sooner and be gone. I always ask up front how long they expect the job to take which is a pretty broad hint that I want them gone asap. Well regarded self employed trades tend to be backed up with work so dont have time to chat.