BBC twisted truth on PM’s Covid plea

BORIS JOHNSON called me in March last year, saying he needed 50,000 ventilators in six weeks in response to the pandemic.

Within two weeks, a team of about 450 Dyson people working across the UK and Singapore in 24-hour production cycles had a new ventilator ready for clinical testing. However, by mid-April it became apparent that patients should not be put on ventilators if it could be avoided. So our efforts were not needed.

We decided to voluntarily bear all of the £20million costs. Sadly, our good intentions were questioned by the BBC, which twisted the truth.

According to BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg, my text messages to Mr Johnson seeking clarification about how UK tax rules would be applied to non-UK employees working on the project meant I was ‘lobbying’ the PM – apparently seeking preferential treatment. Also, I was wrongly described as a ‘prominent Conservative supporter’.

In truth, Mr Johnson had contacted me first. Precisely what favours I was trying to extract were anyone’s guess. Far from any gain, the ventilator project cost Dyson millions.

As for being a ‘prominent Conservative supporter’, I’ve never attended a Conservative Party social event and did not give as much as a penny to the Vote Leave campaign.

This attempt to mire Dyson and myself in a political sleaze narrative failed, because it wasn’t true. It took a while, but eventually the BBC apologised for its inaccuracies.