MANUFACTURING firms would remain in the UK if ministers “wanted it”, billionaire businessman Sir James Dyson said yesterday.
The inventor, who moved his company’s operations to Asia in 2002, implored Sir Keir Starmer to do more to protect home-grown industry.
He said: “When we moved our production to Asia, which I didn’t want to but I was forced to, everyone else was moving their production to Asia.”
Sir James added: “You can’t have a factory where you have no suppliers, you’ve got to be close to your suppliers for quality, for improving the technology, and for quick supply.”
Asked what ministers should do to keep manufacturing local, he said: “What would keep manufacturing here is if the Government wanted it, and the country wanted it.”
“We talk an awful lot.
“I don’t think we’re keen on making things.
“We’ve lost our interest in engineering and lost our interest in manufacturing, and it’s a great shame, because it is a wealth creator and it creates jobs.”
The vacuum boffin warned that children’s “enthusiasm for making things” is being “stamped out of them”.
He said: “They see a problem and they go about solving it imaginatively.
“If only society was like that, we had lots of engineers who could develop new technologies, make things work better and create wealth and jobs.
