Sir Keir Starmer has lost the confidence of Britain’s business owners after suggesting they aren’t “working people”, an expert has said.

Business podcast host Alan Smith said the life of an entrepreneur isn’t for the faint-hearted but they do it because they want to have an impact on society and provide security for their families.

He added: “However, they often don’t receive a monthly paycheck, and are therefore not ‘working people’ according to the Prime Minister. What an insult.

“Whatever the outcome is on Wednesday, trust within the business owner community has evaporated. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

Mr Smith’s comments on X came before Chancellor Rachel Reeves presents the Labour Government’s first Budget since the party swept to victory in the General Election, during which it promised not to raise taxes for “working people”.

Since then, senior Labour politicians have struggled to explain what the party means by “working people”, with the prime minister telling reporters at a Commonwealth summit in Samoa he understood the term to mean someone who “goes out and earns their living, usually paid in a sort of monthly cheque”.

Business owners across the UK are furious with Sir Keir and the Labour Government, which is looking to plug a disputed £22billion “black hole” in the public finances.

Ms Reeves is said to have since identified a far larger £40bn funding gap which she will seek to plug to protect key government departments from real-terms cuts and put the economy on a firmer footing.

Debbie Porter, Managing Director of Destination Digital Marketing in Bakewell, Derbyshire, told Express.co.uk: “Keir Starmer‘s biggest blunder in this whole, exhausting debate has been in making reference to ‘working people’, inferring who is and is not a working person.

“A truism such as ‘taxing the rich to help the poor’ would not have caused all this foreshadowing speculation about the Budget. As it is, he has alienated the biggest cohort driving the economy, the 5.5 million small business owners who put so much on the line, including not taking a pay cheque at all, or a minimal pay cheque to get their businesses up and running and into the black.”

Julie Anne Macken, Director of skincare business Neve’s Bees, said: “My biggest bugbear with this onslaught on small business owners is the narrative that we’re somehow ‘baddies’.

“I’m actually proud that I pay more into ‘the system’ than I take out – that I’m able not only to support my family, but give back in my taxes to help my community and the wider country.

“But I’m left feeling like a bad person that I’ve worked hard and created a successful business and these increased taxes are somehow my punishment for this.

“How about a changed narrative like: We’re so grateful for those who’ve succeeded in making enough money that they are able to support those of us who haven’t had that opportunity. We’d like to thank them for their continued support in paying taxes.”

The Witney-based businesswoman added: “Also, please don’t tell me that working seven days a week somehow doesn’t make me a ‘working person’.”

Gabriel McKeown, Head of Macroeconomics at Sad Rabbit Investments in London, said the business community has found itself in the crosshairs of the new government’s “deficit-plugging fanaticism”.

He added: “This latest assault on the business foundations of the country, coupled with Starmer’s myopic definition of ‘working people’, signals a dangerous shift in Labour’s approach to taxation and threatens to shatter the already weakened confidence in the economy.

“The declaration earlier this month that Britain is ‘open for business’ feels laughable against this backdrop of continued uncertainty and a betrayal of the Government’s promise to support economic growth.”