Dyson lays off a third of its UK workforce due to increasingly competitive and fierce global markets

Dyson is laying off nearly a third of its UK workforce in a restructuring blamed on “increasingly fierce and competitive global markets”.

The vacuum cleaner maker, founded in 1991 by inventor Sir James Dyson, is to cut around 1,000 of its 3,500 jobs in Britain.

The news is a blow to the Labour Party less than a week after it takes office in a new government, but is understood to be unrelated to the election result.

Founder Dyson, a prominent Brexiteer, has been increasingly critical of Britain’s “light-hearted” approach to business amid growing regulations and rising corporation tax.

Staff were informed about the job cuts yesterday in an email from CEO Hanno Kirner.

He said: ‘We have grown rapidly and, like all companies, we review our global structures from time to time to ensure we are prepared for the future.

‘We are therefore proposing changes to our organisation that may result in redundancies.’

Kirner acknowledged that the restructuring would be “incredibly painful” and said those whose jobs were at risk would be “supported through the process.”

Dyson makes a range of products including hand dryers, hairdryers, fans and heaters, as well as vacuum cleaners. The group’s UK base is in Wiltshire, but it also has offices in London and Bristol.

The Mail understands that yesterday’s announcement does not mean that UK jobs will be moved overseas. Britain will remain a key location for the company’s research and development work.

But the decision highlights the difficulties Britain faces in maintaining jobs, especially after the previous government raised corporation tax from 19 percent to 25 percent.

This was cited by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca when it decided last year to build a £320m factory in the Republic of Ireland.

Dyson has already been cutting jobs in recent years, axing 600 positions in the UK and 300 overseas at the start of the pandemic.

It began moving production from Wiltshire to Malaysia in 2002. It opened a plant in Singapore to make digital engines in 2013.

In a newspaper interview last December, Dyson, 77, claimed “wealth creation” and “growth” had become “dirty words”, in an attack on the then Conservative and Labour governments.