Dyson boss brands Rachel Reeves ‘vindictive’ for ‘destroying’ family businesses | Politics | News
Sir James Dyson and Rachel Reeves (Image: GETTY)
Rachel Reeves has been accused of “vindictiveness” by Sir James Dyson over her controversial planned changes to inheritance tax, with the billionaire businessman claiming the move will “destroy” family businesses which employ millions of Britons.
Mr Dyson, was a staunch backer of Brexit during the 2016 referendum, said: “Rachel Reeves’s measures will fleece British family businesses and cost the Treasury billions, not raise them.
“This is a direct attack on those who build, employ, and contribute vastly to the economy.”
The vacuum cleaner tycoon, 77, known for his antipathy towards Labour, argued that the policy unfairly targets family firms while sparing private equity and public companies.
He asked: “Why this vindictiveness only towards British families?”
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From April 2024, farms and family businesses will lose full inheritance tax exemptions.
Business and agricultural property reliefs will be capped at £1 million, with assets above this taxed at 20 % — half the usual 40 % inheritance tax rate but still significant. The Treasury expects the policy to bring in £500 million annually by 2030.
Mr Dyson, who owns 36,000 acres of farmland across the UK and has a net worth of £20.8 billion, argued that family businesses already contribute “untold billions” in taxes and public services.
In his letter to the Sunday Times, he added: “Sixty of the top 100 UK taxpayers own family businesses, paying £3 billion a year.
Rachel Reeves pictured at the World Economic Forum (Image: Getty)
“These companies employ 14 million people. This is what Reeves will kill off, introducing a 20 per cent confiscation at every generation.”
Mr Dyson added: “The real figure will be 40 per cent because families will have to pay dividends to generate the tax, on which more tax is levied. It is only British family businesses being fleeced and decimated like this.”
Economists claim the Government’s policy will help tackle tax avoidance by the ultra-wealthy buying farmland as a loophole, but Dyson argued it would in fact cost Britain far more.
He warned: “Reeves will destroy both the family businesses themselves and a source of untold billions in tax revenue. She is killing the geese that lay the golden eggs.”
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The Treasury has defended the changes, claiming that for a couple living on their farm, the effective relief remains closer to £3 million and that only a few hundred estates a year will be affected.
Ms Reeves told the BBC yesterday: “Agricultural property relief has been disproportionately benefiting a small number of extremely wealthy estates. It’s not fair or sustainable. Even with the changes, it will remain more generous than what most people pay.”
Insisting Labour needed to place public finances “on a firm footing”, she continued: “In the most recent year of tax data, 40 per cent of the benefit of agricultural property relief went to just 7 % of estates.
“Thirty-seven estates got more than £100 million of tax relief. That is not affordable or fair.”
British industrial design engineer and founder of the Dyson company, James Dyson (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Separately, Ms Reeves has announced plans to roll back tax changes for non-domiciled residents, extending a temporary repatriation facility to three years to encourage wealthy individuals to bring money to the UK.
She explained: “We’re making some changes to one part of the way in which very wealthy people from abroad are taxed.”
Britain has already seen a net loss of 10,800 millionaires to migration in 2024, analytics firm New World Wealth has pointed out, largely to Italy, Switzerland, and other countries with more favourable tax regimes.
Experts fear such policies risk further eroding Britain’s appeal to wealth creators while undermining family businesses at home.
