Sir James Dyson: I am 'enormously optimistic' about our future and UK has nothing to fear from hard Brexit
Sir James Dyson, the billionaire investor, has said he is "enormously optimistic" about Britain's prospects outside the EU and believes that the UK has nothing to fear from a hard Brexit.
The inventor said that if the UK fails to secure a trade deal with Brussels and has to resort to World Trade Organisation tariffs, which range from 5 per cent to 10 per cent, it will be a "tiny penalty to pay".
He highlighted the fact that his business already pays World Trade Organisation tariffs because it manufactures products in Singapore then exports them around the World.
Sir James, who backed Brexit, said: “They have not held us back at all. It is clearly not a barrier to exporting into Europe.”
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, will on Wednesday trigger Article 50 and begin the formal process of leaving the European Union. She has repeatedly said that no deal with the European Union is better than a bad deal.
However Sir James said that he does not expect Britain's to have to fall back on WTO tariffs: "I don’t believe it will get to that, it’s not in Europe’s interests,” he said.
In an interview with the BBC Sir James said that he is "enormously optimistic" about the UK's trading prospects in future.
He said: "Europe's only 15 per cent of the global market and the really fast-expanding markets are in the Far East.
"I'm enormously optimistic because looking outwards to the rest of the world is very, very important because that's the fast-growing bit."
However he said that he wants Theresa May, the prime minister, to remove foreign students from official immigration figures and particularly protect those studying maths, engineering and science.
“I wouldn’t want the government to target that area. We should make maths, science and engineering students that come to stay in this country welcome here,” he said.
