Jeremy Hunt found himself in a heated back and forth with entrepreneur Sir James Dyson last week, telling him he should run for parliament if he thought he could do a better job than the Government.
Dyson met with the Chancellor in No 11 Downing Street last week. While the meeting was meant to be about research and development tax relief, Dyson reportedly used the meeting to criticise the Government.
He is said to have called for tax cuts, reduced public spending and demanded the Government bring an end to the use of diversity managers in the NHS.
The meeting was reportedly "fiery", sources said, culminating with the Chancellor suggesting Dyson should run for a seat in parliament himself.
Jeremy Hunt found himself in a heated back and forth with entrepreneur Sir James Dyson last week
PA
Sources told the Financial Times: "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?'."
A spokesperson for Dyson said he would not comment on private meetings.
Dyson - one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs - last year wrote a letter to The Times warning that Government policies are deterring businesses from investing in the UK, claiming they are instead looking towards countries that "encourage growth and innovation rather than deter them".
In an interview with the Telegraph, he also claimed growth and wealth generation had become "dirty words" as a result of the drive to cut inflation.
He said: "I've always believed that inflation isn't quite the enemy everyone thinks it is. If you've got growth, a bit of inflation doesn't matter.
"If you get inflation down and kill growth, I think you're in trouble."
Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), published today, showed that the consumer price index (CPI) rate of inflation fell to 3.4 per cent in the 12 months to February 2024.
This comes after two consecutive months of the CPI remaining at four per cent which is double the Bank of England’s target.
Analysts will be hoping this drop in inflation will trigger a sooner-than-expected interest rate cut from the central bank.
Rates have been raised by the Bank in an attempt to ease the impact of a high CPI rate on the economy, which reached a 41-year-high of 11.1 per cent in October 2022.
Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), published today, showed that the consumer price index (CPI) rate of inflation fell to 3.4 per cent in the 12 months to February 2024
PA
As it stands, the base rate is sitting at 5.25 per cent which has been passed onto borrowers and homeowners via hiked repayments.
Previously, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has suggested interest rates will not be cut until the later half of 2024 but this could be reversed as inflation returns to a downward trajectory.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Reacting to February’s CPI inflation figure, the Chancellor said the Government’s “plan is working”.
Hunt cited that the inflation rate is now estimated to hit the Bank of England’s two per cent target within a matter of months.