BrewDog co-founder James Watt has hit out at Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves for causing huge “economic pain” for the UK with her actions.

Mr Watt believes the UK is sure to “tip into a recession” following controversial policies set out by Rachel Reeves’s autumn Budget.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, the former chief executive has hit out at the Labour Government after it increased National Insurance (NI) contributions, saying it’ll “affect every single business in the UK”.

“It’s making it more difficult to employ people, invest in people, invest in businesses, and invest in our economy,” he said.

“We’ve got to find millions of pounds this year that would otherwise have been spent on opening new locations, expanding our production facilities, and creating jobs.

“So we’re not able to invest that money to create jobs, and it’s made it harder to sustain the jobs that we have. Unfortunately, that’s the same for almost every other CEO I speak to, and I think the UK is about to tip into a recession.”

Mr Watt added: “We’ve just got to look at the debt numbers, the unemployment numbers, the growth numbers, and I’m all for paying my fair share of taxes.

“I’ve paid hundreds of millions of pounds of taxes over the last few years. But I think ultimately what Labour did with the Budget is going to lead to less tax revenue to the Government overall as opposed to more, which is just gonna be economic pain for everyone in the country and a decrease in the standard of everyone’s living in the country as well.”

Mr Watt founded BrewDog in 2007 alongside Martin Dickie in Edinburgh. In May last year, he stepped down as chief executive, but he still owns 21% of the business and remains as non-executive director.

He sparked controversy as he hit out at Brits for their attitude to work, declaring a “work-life balance is only for people who hate their jobs”.

Addressing his comments, Mr Watt added: “The issue we’ve got in the UK is that before the pandemic, there were high-performing teams that were remote-based, and there were high-performing teams that worked in the office, and the pandemic mixed all that up.

The 42-year-old recently announced a new reality television show that will see budding entrepreneurs and business leaders compete for £2million — the largest in UK TV history.

The new show, House of Unicorns, will be filmed over six weeks. Mr Watt will decide the winner of half the prize money, while the audience will determine where the other £1million goes in a public vote.

Speaking about the show, he said: “This is, first and foremost, a business show to invest in and create a fantastic business. So, if you’re a content creator with a business idea, this is not for you.

“If you’ve got a good business, if you’ve got business pedigree, if you’ve got a track record, if you’ve got ambition. It’s business credentials over entertainment credentials every single time with House of Unicorns. I think it’s the other way around with shows like The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den.”

Mr Watt will invest £1million of his own money, with the other 50% coming from Founders Capital, Europe’s largest founder investor community.