James Dyson attacks Rishi Sunak’s ‘shortsighted, stupid’ tax policies

Sir James Dyson, the billionaire businessperson, has launched a withering attack on Rishi Sunak's government, saying its "shortsighted" and "stupid" economic policies have left the country in a state of "Covid inertia".

The founder of the eponymous vacuum cleaner firm said "growth has become a dirty word" under the current leadership and that on current trends, the average British family will be poorer than their Polish counterpart by 2030.

Dyson, a prominent supporter of Brexit, criticised the government's "ever higher tax bills" for the private sector and regulations, saying it is imposing "tax upon tax on companies in the belief that penalising the private sector is a free win at the ballot box".

"This is as shortsighted as it is stupid," Dyson wrote in the Telegraph on Thursday. "In the global economy, companies will simply choose to transfer jobs and invest elsewhere. Our country has an illustrious history of enterprise and innovation, born of a culture which we are in the process of extinguishing. We have got through the worst of Covid, but risk wasting the recovery."

Dyson said the government's failure to get workers back to the office after the pandemic had "badly damaged the country's work ethic", arguing face-to-face interaction was important, including for the training of new and young employees. He also claimed the growth of his business, which makes vacuum cleaners, fans and hairdryers, had happened largely "despite government, rather than because of it".

However, he concluded that "it is not too late for Britain to shake off its Covid inertia" if the government acts fast. "Starting with the spring budget in March, it must incentivise private innovation and demonstrate its ambition for growth," Dyson wrote.

The government is under pressure to reduce taxes for households and businesses in the spring budget to avoid a damaging and long-lasting recession.

However, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is planning a "slimmed down" budget with no immediate tax cuts, Treasury insiders have said. Instead, Hunt will focus on winning back economic credibility and bringing inflation down after the damage inflicted by his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng under the Liz Truss government.

But MPs who were loyal to Liz Truss's tax-cutting agenda have begun to form a new "Conservative growth group" before the fiscal statement to put pressure on the Treasury for tax cuts - and suggested Truss herself could speak out for the first time before the budget.

Annual inflation in the UK eased slightly to 10.5% in December from 10.7% in November, but remained high. The economy eked out 0.1% growth in November and may have avoided a recession in late 2022 but could still fall into recession in the coming months as interest rates rise to contain high inflation.