Business has launched a pre-emptive strike against the “unacceptably high” level of corporate taxation, in an attempt to persuade prime minister Gordon Brown not to make companies pay the bill for his autumn relaunch.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Miles Templeman, director-general of the Institute of Directors, criticised Mr Brown’s first months in Downing Street and urged him not to inflict further damage on the UK’s competitiveness in a move to recover political popularity.