Jeremy Hunt and Sir James Dyson were locked in a heated exchange during a tense meeting at Number 11 Downing Street, according to reports in the Financial Times.
The chancellor met with the British inventor in London for what insiders said was a short encounter.
At one point, Hunt suggested Dyson should run for parliament if he believed he could do a better job than the government, which could be tricky given he is currently domiciled outside of the UK (go Brexit!).
The meeting was set up to discuss research and development tax relief and comes after Dyson accused the government of presiding over “scandalous neglect” of the science and technology sectors.
He has also been a vocal critic of remote working and says the UK has ignored entrepreneurship and failed to leverage its position outside of Europe, a split he advocated for at the time.
One person familiar with the exchange said: “It was an awful meeting, to the extent that Hunt told Dyson: ‘If you think you could do a better job, why don’t you just stand for election?’.”
Another person described the meeting as “fiery”.
However, a Treasury insider disputed that characterisation, describing the encounter as a “good, robust discussion”.
Late last year, Dyson lost a libel claim against the publisher of the Daily Mirror.
The inventor gave evidence at the Royal Courts of Justice over two days in a trial against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over an article published in January 2022.
In the Daily Mirror article, journalist Brian Reade referred to the engineer as “the vacuum-cleaner tycoon who championed Vote Leave due to the economic opportunities it would bring to British industry before moving his global head office to Singapore”.
Mr Reade continued: “Kids, talk the talk but then screw your country and if anyone complains, tell them to suck it up.”
Sir James brought the High Court claim against MGN, describing the allegations in the article as a “vicious and vitriolic” personal attack.
But in a ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Jay dismissed the inventor’s claim.
He said: “In the present case the Claimant cannot demonstrate that he has suffered financial loss as a result of these publications. Nor can he show that his philanthropic work, particularly directed to young people and schools, has been harmed in any way.”
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