Sir James Dyson has branded Rachel Reeves’ first Budget “ignorant” and “spiteful” as he accused her of “killing off family businesses, individual aspiration and economic growth”.

The British entrepreneur, 77, hit out at the Chancellor following the government’s first fiscal event last week, writing in the Times newspaper that Labour “hates British families”.

He cautioned that the government hiking inheritance tax (IHT) on farms and family-run businesses would be “the death of entrepreneurship” and ruin “incentives to start” new firms.

It came after Reeves tightened up IHT on business property, which will see family firms passing down assets valued above £1m paying a 20 per cent rate from April 2026.

This sits below the standard 40 per cent rate, and also applies to farms worth over £1m.

Inventor and designer Sir James, one of the UK’s richest men, wrote: “What is it about British families that Labour hates so much? 

“In a single ignorant swipe at aspiration, Rachel Reeves is killing off established family businesses, and any incentive to start new ones, with her 20 per cent ‘family death tax’, levied each time a family business passes a generation.”