Run the country like a business and put the 'great' back into Britain, says Yo! Sushi founder
Simon Woodroffe is perhaps best known as the founder of the restaurant chain Yo! Sushi and for his stint on the first series of Dragon's Den in 2005.
Now the entrepreneur, who lives in Thailand, is weighing in on why Britain is facing an exodus of both its millionaires and wider workforce.
He is calling for 'radical' change to how the country is run as he looks on from afar.
And if his new plans are anything to go by, he may become a familiar figure to a fresh generation of Britons.
In an interview with the Daily Mail and This Is Money, he shares his ideas on how to run the country and his possible political ambitions.
Britain needs a strong leader
Woodroffe's railing against the establishment and calls for radical change should come as no surprise.
Despite his 'aristo' mother 'and 'conservative' father who sent Woodroffe to the prestigious Marlborough College, the entrepreneur has a wilder side.
After a brief stint in prison for drug offences, he spent two decades working in the music business, including on Live Aid.
Simon Woodroffe brought conveyor belt sushi to the UK in the 1990s
After a trip to Asia in the 1990s, he was inspired to launch the Yo! Sushi restaurant in Soho, which snowballed into becoming the once ubiquitous chain.
By the early 2000s, entrepreneurs had 'become the new celebrity chefs,' says Woodroffe and he rode the wave to join Dragons' Den as one of its first investors.
Woodroffe, 74, insists he still feels 'very English' but understands the exodus of young people from Britain as they face stagnating wages, minimal growth and higher costs.
'We cannot go on as we are, running up further and further debt, taxing more and more and having a train of people leaving the country,' he says.
As with many entrepreneurs of his generation, he bemoans the higher tax burden, which is projected to reach a 70-year high, and favours deregulation.
Unusually, Woodroffe does not blame the Prime Minister, who he believes is a 'very, very decent man,' but he's less complimentary about MPs.
'I go to Parliament sometimes and I meet these people.
'The people at the top are usually pretty damn good at what they do… [but] honestly, the people in the middle, I wouldn't employ any of them. It's madness.'
Even with a good leader, the current system isn't fit for modern society - 'we need a strong leader,' he says.
'It's conceivable that Farage will do that. It's conceivable that, if he doesn't kill us all, Trump will be seen in history as somebody who made a radical change.
'The people who vote for them are deeply dissatisfied, in the same way people voted for Jeremy Corbyn. People are deeply unhappy.
'It's a very bad time at the moment. The further the pendulum swings, the closer we get to radical change.'
Share this article
'I'd get involved politically'
Woodroffe's ideas are not new. Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's former chief adviser, held similar views and lambasted the civil service for allowing failure to be normal.
'Love him or hate him, I thought he was absolutely spot on. You need people of a [younger] generation to radically say how we actually run the business of the UK.
'It's a business thing. Love Trump or hate him - I wouldn't want to be on a desert island with him - he's done a business job there and I think most people recognise that to some extent.'
Woodroffe, like many critics of the current system, condemns the lack of business experience in the House of Commons. Some critics say it is why Labour has been so misguided in its business policies.
It's also not reflective of modern Britain, which now has over five million small businesses: 'We're becoming a nation of entrepreneurs, not a nation of shopkeepers.'
Central to Woodroffe's manifesto is not just getting people with business experience, but running the entire country like one, as well as a more holistic approach to education.
'You either improve the service dramatically or improve the price you're selling. If you can do both of those things at the same time, you're an absolute winner,' he says.
'I remember when Wagamama first opened and going in there just before I launched Yo! Sushi, thinking to myself, they could charge higher prices. But they don't, and they didn't.
'It's an incredible formula to have something of high quality and low cost. I think people are looking for that around the world.
'We in Great Britain need to create a long-term plan that is a formula that makes us attractive rather than just putting out fires.'
Woodroffe says Britain needs radical change to stop the exodus of millionaires
His time in Thailand has sharpened those views. While the lifestyle and tax advantages have no doubt helped, Woodroffe admires the way the country is run - 'it's not a traditional democracy [but] it works very well.'
He believes there should be 40 people running Britain, as a large cabinet, who are voted for directly by the people.
Does that not lead Britain down the road of authoritarianism? Woodroffe believes it is 'the least corrupt country I've ever been to. You know what Brits are like, we're not going to allow a dictator in there one way or another.'
It will be a hard sell but there are plenty of voters who'll agree with the entrepreneur's diagnosis of Britain's woes.
Others will say he shouldn't have a say because he no longer lives in the UK. To them, Woodroffe would say: 'I'm going to keep saying what I'm saying, what I'm saying is common sense.'
Could the entrepreneur, who admits he has run his businesses as a 'dictator' in the early days, move back and lead the radical change he's calling for?
'I haven't said this before, but if what I'm talking about got really picked up and started to be talked about, I'd come back and get involved politically.'
Why not now? 'There's too many thing things going on in my life,' he says.
You suspect that leaving sunny Thailand might be a bigger influence on that decision than he might admit, though.
Simon Woodroffe's autobiography Yo! Man is published on 4 June 2026.
SAVE MONEY, MAKE MONEY
Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence. Terms and conditions apply on all offers.
