James Dyson on Brexit: UK needs a “clean break” from EU

Sir James Dyson told Sky News that the UK should leave the EU with a “clean break”, without any deals struck.

The Brexit campaigner said Britain should shift their focus from Europe and that deal would simply be “a muddle”.

“You end up having to do one transitional arrangement, and then another one. So just have a clean break, it’s not a big deal,” he told Sky News.

“Europe is a declining part of world trade. It’s now down to 12 percent and in about five years’ time it will be 9 percent of world trade. The fastest growing sector is, of course, in the far east, China and the far eastern countries where we’re growing by about 80 percent or 90 percent a year. That’s where the opportunities are – not Europe.”

Dyson has 3,500 employees in the UK, which is expected to double in the next few years. Dyson has made clear the need for new employees with the appropriate skills, which they will find through a new university where students will be paid to work whilst gaining an engineering degree.

“There is a huge shortage of engineers in Britain – it’s estimated we’ll be two million engineers short by 2022 – but more interestingly we’re short of very good engineers. We want to develop the best tech in the world and make products that conquer the world,” said Dyson.

“It’s blindingly obvious that we need to take on more engineers, and if people study here then they’ll be learning from some of the best in the world.”

In contrast to Dyson, Sir Charlie Mayfield, from the John Lewis partnership was not as optimistic about the effects of Brexit on businesses. 

“We should be under no illusions, Brexit is having an effect on the economy, no question. It’s the same for everybody, and the main effects are sterling and confidence,” he told the Today programme.

“Uncertainty is one of the consequences of this, and of course businesses never like uncertainty, because it makes it hard to plan for the future,” he added.