Sir James Dyson’s salary was slashed last year as profits slid at his technology firm.

The multimillionaire inventor’s £457,000 pay packet for 2008 is a dramatic reduction compared with the £12.5 million that he took home last year.

Sir James, who became a household name after launching his bagless vacuum, took the pay cut as pre-tax profits at his company fell 4 per cent to £85.3 million in the 12 months to December 31 as the recession took its toll.

Turnover grew 2.8 per cent to £628 million in the period, while research and development spending was 6 per cent lower at £49 million.

But Sir James, who will become the Conservatives’ technology czar, said that research was the company’s “life blood” and would continue.

This year the company introduced a new vacuum that steers on a ball instead of wheels, which it claimed became Britain’s bestselling vacuum within a month.

Dyson, which has its design base in Wiltshire, also increased the spread of its Airblade hand dryers to 19 countries this year.

“By investing in long-term research and development, we’ve been able to keep launching new technologies,” Sir James said.

The company said that it had boosted the number of engineers it employed globally to 500.

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