Sir James Dyson has defended himself against accusations of hypocrisy following the decision to move his tech company’s HQ from Wiltshire to Singapore.
The millionaire inventor, who has been a vocal support of Brexit, came under fire earlier this week as critics said the relocation contradicted Mr Dyson’s claim that he was “enormously optimistic” about the UK’s trading future post-Brexit.
The company had previously revealed that its new electric car would be built in Singapore.
Mr Dyson wrote in the Telegraph that Brexit played no part in his firm’s plan to move out of the UK. Instead, the decision was made because Dyson has “amassed great manufacturing and operations knowledge over time in Singapore”.
“Though Singapore has a comparatively high cost base, it also has great technology expertise meaning it is the right place to make a high quality, technology loaded, electric vehicle.
“It would be downright stupid to think we could build our own automotive manufacturing plant from scratch, procure billions of pounds worth of components, and establish new production methods for automotive and battery technology, while our management team sat 7,000 miles away with an eight hour time difference. That would be reckless,” he said.
Mr Dyson said most of the criticism of his decision was “missing the point entirely”.
“Success abroad means we can invest more here, as we’re doing, with new money going into research and development, building new campuses, educating a future generation, and creating new jobs.
“Every pound of investment and employment we spend in Britain is a vote of confidence in Britain,” he said.
“The future is incredibly exciting, I accept that I may be ambitious to get there faster than some, but please don’t take it the wrong way: these are not the actions of a hypocrite but someone wanting to invest more in the UK post-Brexit, not less.”
