Alistair Darling was warned on Thursday his new 50p income tax rate would drive talent from the City and discourage entrepreneurs, but early polls suggest that the chancellor’s Budget tax rises have tapped into rising popular hostility towards the rich.

Mr Darling’s tax raid on higher earners was widely criticised in the press as a populist gesture to divert attention from spiralling government borrowing and a political tactic to wrongfoot the Conservatives.