Backing innovators is key to securing Britain's future

BACK in 2017, I launched the world's first Jet Suit. What began as a homegrown and rather ambitious experiment in the world of human flight is now a company, Gravity Industries, worth nearly £60million.

- Richard Browning

We've flown in more than 50 countries and work with special forces and medical teams worldwide. In that time, we have seen British innovation at its best, with entrepreneurs, inventors and startups working to keep Britain as a leader in business.

But now? Those same ideas people are packing up and packing it in. And we need to stop this happening.

Entrepreneurs get bad press, but they're the same people as you and I. They're the shopkeepers at the end of your road, the plumbers and the inventors who start their own businesses as well as the tech startups.

They range from corner shops, children's clubs and beauticians to the makers of foldable bikes, vaccine developers and, like us, Jet Suits. They are the people who create jobs in towns, bring in investment, and pay the taxes that fund our schools, NHS and transport.

And yet more of them are choosing not to take the risk, or worse, they're leaving the country altogether.

I SPEAK to business leaders every week who tell me they're either closing businesses, or looking abroad. They see countries that roll out the red carpet for entrepreneurs, where taxes are lower and where it's easier to start and grow a company.