Billionaire and founder of Dyson Ltd, Sir James Dyson has decided to return to the UK for permanent residency from Singapore a few days after a small scandal involving Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Dyson founder Sir James Dyson has relocated to the UK. Credit: Conservative Party / Flickr
Leaked texts surfaced a few days ago where Johnson agreed to "fix" the tax issue that caused the entrepreneur to relocate to Singapore, which was met with its own string of controversies back in 2019.
Read more: Dyson to produce 10,000 ventilators for UK government
Dyson wrote directly to the Treasury asking if his employees would not have to pay extra tax in the events the company returned to the UK to create ventilators to help deal with the pandemic.
According to company filing - including his family office - he now lives primarily in the UK.
A Dyson spokesperson told the BBC: "Singapore is, and remains, the global headquarters of Dyson, our leadership team is based here and it is the centre of our sales, engineering and manufacturing operations."
They added the structure of the group and "company rationale" remain unchanged.
The company were widely criticised for its relocation to Singapore in 2019, particularly as Sir James was an active contributor and supporter of the Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum in 2016.
However, when switching from the original headquarters in Wiltshire, his company notified the public that no jobs would be lost in the transition.
The Labour Party referred to the texts as "jaw-dropping" and "an example of new Tory sleaze" after they were made public, resulting in Johnson being grilled by Labour leader Keir Starmer in the latest Prime Minister's Questions.
"What does the Prime Minister think is the right thing to do if he receives a text from a billionaire Conservative Party supporter asking him to 'fix' tax rules?" Starmer delivered to the Commons.
Starmer claims Johnson was lobbied for a "change in the tax laws" when he addressed the Speaker of the House, alluding to the number of people lobbying Chancellor Rishi Sunak in recent weeks - likely referring to the recent scandal involving former Prime Minister David Cameron and Liberty Steel.
Read more: Liberty Steel's future in doubt following bailout rejection
Johnson referred to Starmer's comment at the beginning of the pandemic involving a call to try and procure as many ventilators as possible to help deal with the crisis.
The Prime Minister hinted at the insurmountable challenge the country faced last year in the wake of a new disease which he claims "killed people in ways we could not understand."
"The only way to help them was to incubate them and put them on ventilation," he added. "We had only 9,000 ventilators in this country and we secured 22,000 as a result as a result of that challenge."
Labour has called for a "thorough investigation" into Dyson's ties with the Prime Minister.
Earlier this month, Dyson revealed plans to create a further 200 jobs at two of its research centres in Wiltshire a part of a £2.75 billion (€3.17 billion) expansion plan.
He added the transition allowed for his company to hire the engineering talent it could not find in the UK.
He is hardly the first major business leader to find victory in Brexit. Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta echoed similar sentiments, referring to how the UK-EU trade deal will give the company a "competitive edge" as it looks to supply more batteries within the UK as a result of the ongoing semiconductor shortage.
Read more: Nissan chief hails Brexit victory as it looks to expand UK production
Downing Street has officially announced an investigation into how the texts - which were conducted in private - were leaked to the public.
The texts were first seen by the BBC, so there may be a chance the investigation will involve the organisation, although it claims texts were released to officials.
Back to Homepage
Back to Politics & Economics