Billionaire Sir James Dyson has criticised Rishi Sunak’s government for making growth a “dirty word” and having a “stupid” approach to business.

The vacuum cleaner firm founder said the government’s approach to business and the economy in the UK is as “short-sighted as it is stupid”.

He also said the word growth has become “dirty” and “an idea too risky to contemplate”, in a recent article.

The government has pledged to halve inflation and grow the economy by the end of the year, as the prime minister and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt seek to balance the books and restore credibility to the UK’s finances.

But writing in The Telegraph, Sir James said he was baffled by Mr Sunak’s “obvious” vision for the country which, in his view, is too reliant on state intervention.

Sir James said it is not “too late for Britain to shake off its COVID inertia” but that businesses need much more support.

He wrote: “There are sensible policies, such as research and development tax credits, that encourage investment in the UK and the creation of high-value jobs and careers.

“But the government seems intent on moving in the opposite direction with the introduction of suffocating regulation, greater interference with business, and thinking it can impose tax upon tax on companies in the belief that penalising the private sector is a free win at the ballot box.”

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Companies will ‘invest elsewhere’

The entrepreneur said companies will “simply choose to transfer jobs and invest elsewhere” if current policies continue.

Sir James also said the government’s failure to get workers back into the workplace after the pandemic has “badly damaged the country’s work ethic”.

He said the government should use the spring budget in March to “incentivise private innovation and demonstrate its ambition for growth”.

The prime minister has faced pressure from some backbenchers over tax rises, following the autumn statement last year.

Mr Hunt announced in November that millions of people would pay more in tax in an attempt to balance the books following the economic chaos after his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.

The prime minister promoted the government’s investment in deprived regions of the country on Thursday, saying: “Through greater investment in local areas, we can grow the economy, create good jobs and spread opportunity everywhere.”

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