Sir James Dyson, the billionaire founder of Dyson, moved his primary residency back to the UK after a stint in Singapore, following controversy over leaked text messages to then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson seeking tax assurances during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dyson had earlier shifted its HQ focus to Singapore, drawing criticism from UK lawmakers.
The move was revealed in April 2021 through filings for companies the billionaire controls, including his family office Weybourne, which listed the UK — not Singapore — as his country of usual residence. Similar filings had cited Singapore in 2019, shortly after Dyson announced it was moving its head office to the city-state to be closer to fast-growing Asian markets. The reversal came roughly two years after the original relocation, which had already drawn fire: Dyson, then worth about US$29 billion, was a prominent supporter of Brexit, and UK lawmakers accused him of abandoning Britain even as he championed leaving the EU.
The timing was awkward. Days before the residency switch surfaced, the BBC published leaked text messages showing Dyson had contacted Boris Johnson directly in March 2020 to seek assurances that Dyson employees would not face a change in their tax status if they came to Britain to help build ventilators for the National Health Service. Dyson had initially written to the Treasury; getting no reply, he texted the prime minister, who responded with promises to fix the issue. Boris Johnson later defended himself in Parliament, saying he made "absolutely no apology" for doing everything possible in a national emergency. Dyson called it "absurd" to suggest the messages broke lobbying rules, noting the ventilator project cost his company about £20 million and was undertaken at the government's request.
Dyson's Singapore chapter had been eventful. The company scrapped plans for an electric car plant in the city-state in 2019, citing commercial viability, and Dyson sold his record-breaking S$73.8 million super-penthouse at a loss of about S$11.8 million during the pandemic. He had also bought a Good Class Bungalow near the Botanic Gardens. A Dyson spokesperson stressed that Singapore remained the company's global headquarters and centre of sales, engineering and manufacturing operations, and that "nothing has changed in respect of the company."
The episode cemented Dyson's complicated public image in Britain — celebrated inventor, Brexit backer, pandemic helper, and lightning rod for debates about tax, lobbying and corporate loyalty. For Singapore, his departure underscored how even the highest-profile corporate relocations can be reversed, and how personal residency choices by billionaires can carry outsized political symbolism.