James Dyson denies he 'jumped ship' from UK after Brexit

James Dyson - Credit: Royal Society/Wikimedia

Dyson founder and leading Brexit supporter James Dyson has denied he has abandoned Britain since the EU referendum after his Singapore move.

The entrepreneur was accused of “jumping ship” after Brexit when he announced the company was relocating to Singapore – a country which has a trade deal with the European Union.

It was reported the billionaire inventor had purchased a £43 million “super penthouse” in the country after the announcement.

But Dyson – one of the UK’s richest men – said people had got it “completely wrong” about the move, arguing he’s “not left Britain” despite buying the property.

He told the Today programme: “People got it completely wrong.

“Two people went to Singapore as part of the titular head office move to a part of the world where we manufacture and we have a very large number of sales.

“We felt it was right that we should have engineers and designers in a part of the world where a huge number of our sales are happening and where the culture is very different.

“It would be arrogant to think we can design products in Britain for people in Asia.”

Questioned about the property by presenter Nick Robinson, he said: “I haven’t gone, I’m here. I visit and I have a house there. But we’re expanding here in Britain.

“We’re taking over Hullavington Airfield, we’re doing up the hangars there and we’re a British company.”

Dyson said back in 2016 ahead of the Brexit vote: “We will create more wealth and more jobs by being outside the EU. We will be in control of our destiny. And control, I think, is the most important thing in life and business.

“The last thing I would ever want to do is to put myself in somebody else’s hands. Not just the other countries, but the Brussels bureaucrats.”

He added: “Why on earth would you chuck out researchers with that valuable technology which they then take back to China or Singapore and use it against us?”