Billionaire Brexit backer James Dyson switches residency back to UK from Singapore

LONDON — Mr James Dyson is a British resident again, according to a company filing, after the billionaire bagless vacuum cleaner inventor and Brexit backer upped sticks to Singapore.

A Companies House document from Weybourne, which controls his family fortune, dated Tuesday (April 20) stated he had been resident in Britain since April 6.

The change comes as the household gadget innovator, 73, was drawn into a government lobbying row after directly messaging prime minister Boris Johnson about tax status.

Mr Dyson asked Johnson to clarify whether his employees would be stung for tax if they returned to meet a government call for more ventilators as the coronavirus outbreak took hold.

Mr Johnson promised to "fix" the situation. Both denied any wrongdoing, according to a BBC report this week.

Mr Dyson, an outspoken business backer of Britain's divisive departure from the European Union, in 2020 became the country's richest man, with a personal fortune of £16.2 billion (S$29.9 billion), according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

Last week, he declared in an interview with the BBC that Brexit had given the country back its "freedom", even as he faced charges of hypocrisy because of his business affairs.

In 2019, he moved his company's headquarters from Britain to Singapore.

But he insisted in the interview he was committed to the country, as he employed 4,000 people and paid "a large amount of tax".

Last year, his company unveiled a £2.75 billion investment to double its product range by 2025, ploughing cash into Britain, the Philippines and Singapore.

The company, which is unlisted on the stock market, previously abandoned plans to make electric vehicles, assessing it was commercially unviable. AFP