Hoover entrepreneur James Dyson slams Rachel Reeves over ‘anger’ Budget warns Chancellor’s inheritance tax raids on farmers are ‘killing’ family businesses

Sir James Dyson has criticized Rachel Reeves’ “wicked” budget and warned that rising inheritance tax will “kill” farms and family businesses.

Hoover’s businessman, who is one of Britain’s leading businessmen, has made accusations of Times after Labor announced tax hikes on tuition fees and multimillion-dollar estates last week.

The Chancellor’s proposals would see family firms charge 20 per cent on transfers of assets worth more than £1 million from April 2026 – below the standard 40 per cent rate – and a 20 per cent levy on farms worth more than £1 million.

Sir James, 77, says the changes are an “ignorant blow to aspirations” and adds he has “huge sympathy for the small businesses and start-ups that will suffer.”

He said: “Rachel Reeves is destroying existing family businesses and any incentive to open new ones, as her 20% family death tax is imposed every time a family business changes a generation.”

“Every business expects to pay tax, but for Labor to destroy a domestic family business is a tragedy. In particular, I have great sympathy for the small businesses and startups that will suffer. Labor has shown its true colors with an evil budget.”

The Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that Reeves’ two measures would raise £520 million by 2029-30. But other British businessmen have joined Sir James in criticizing the changes.

Peter White, founder of Nova Laboratories, said his son “will need to personally generate around £26 million of liquidity upon my death” to continue to own and operate the Leicester-based pharmaceutical company.

“This is 40 times his personal wealth, including the value of his family’s home and all his possessions,” he said.

According to Family Business UK, a lobby group that represents more than 4.8 million companies, the effective tax rate will be 40 percent rather than 20 percent because those eligible to inherit the business will have to take dividends to pay their tax bills. .

Neil Davey, the group’s chief executive, said: “These changes will destroy tens of thousands of family businesses and farms.” For the sake of raising a theoretical £500 million a year, this is completely disproportionate and should be scrapped.

“Well-run, profitable companies will have no choice but to put up the ‘for sale’ sign rather than being taken over by the next generation of the family, creating a bonanza for investors looking to acquire assets on the cheap.”

Minette Butters, former president of the National Farmers’ Union, accused the chancellor of “doing everything she can to pull the rug out from under our struggling farmers”.

She called on the Treasury to “weed out the occasional multi-millionaires who buy land pretending it’s for farming” and rescue real farmers from her plans to cap inheritance tax relief on farms at £1 million.

In today’s Mail on Sunday she wrote: “Change will destroy communities. It is not enough to say that farmers could sell a few fields to pay the bills. Farms must be of a certain size to be viable.

“While many farmers may be asset rich, they are often cash strapped and in many cases extremely poor.”

Jeremy Clarkson also expressed his fury and said the changes “could be the last straw for farmers already struggling to cope”.

The Clarkson Farm presenter writes of Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in today’s Sunday Times: “If rumors of a farmer’s suicide in the countryside are true, their politics, born of bitterness and envy, may have already tipped one man over the edge .’