We should quit with no deal, says Dyson... and I can’t wait!

SIR James Dyson yesterday called for Britain to make a ‘clean break’ from Brussels – and said leaving the EU without a deal would hurt Europe more than the UK.

The 70-year- old inventor, who backed Brexit during the referendum campaign, said a period of transition would be ‘a muddle’.

‘You end up having to do one transitional arrangement, and then another one,’ he said. ‘So just have a clean break – it’s not a big deal.’

Sir James said he expected Britain to leave the EU without a deal and default to World Trade Organisation rules in a move that he argued would hurt European businesses rather than those in the UK.

‘Britain is putting forward very positive suggestions and they’re not being reciprocated by the other side,’ he said. ‘ But that doesn’t particularly surprise me and I suspect that we’ll have to leave without a deal.’

Sir James said his company Dyson, famed for its vacuum cleaners, already pays the WTO tariffs when it imports goods into Europe because they are made abroad. ‘It hasn’t hurt us at all,’ he added. ‘We’re one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe.’

And he called on British firms to look beyond Europe for trade to faster-growing regions of the world.

‘Europe is a declining part of world trade,’ he said. ‘It’s a very important market for us... but it’s only 15 per cent of our trade and the fastest-growing sector is of course in the Far East, China and the Far Eastern countries where we’re growing by about 80 per cent or 90 per cent a year.

‘That’s where the opportunities are – not Europe. India is the fastest-growing economy in the world. To re-engage with India and have a trade agreement with India would be a really major step forward.

‘The Commonwealth countries who we discarded when we went into Europe are great trading nations to be tied with. India, Australia, Canada... these are very, very wealthy and wonderful trading nations and to re- engage with them directly will be a fantastic opportunity.’

Asked if he had any regrets about backing Brexit, Sir James added: ‘None at all. I think it’s an absolutely wonderful opportunity to remove trade barriers with the rest of the world and to focus ourselves on the fast-growing markets in the world, the really exciting ones.’ He also disrest missed warnings that uncertainty caused by the Brexit vote was harming business and the economy.

‘There is always uncertainty in business about exchange rates, conditions in markets, natural disasters,’ he said.

‘Business is about uncertainty. I think uncertainty is an opportunity. The opportunity here is that actually the of the world is growing at a far greater rate than Europe so the opportunity is to export to the rest of the world and to capitalise on that.’

Sir James’s comments came after Sir Charlie Mayfield, the chairman of John Lewis, warned the Brexit was holding back growth.

‘Brexit is having an effect on the economy, no question,’ he said. ‘It is the same for everybody and the main effects are sterling and confidence. 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.’

Sir James also launched a scathing attack on European Commission president JeanClaude Juncker after he said Britain will ‘regret’ leaving the EU. He said: ‘If Jean-Claude Juncker is saying that, he’s always wrong, so he’s wrong again and he’s absolutely wrong this time.’

‘Wonderful opportunity’