It is believed to be the biggest dividend in a decade

Digger-maker JCB has paid a £300 million (US$388) dividend to the Bamford family ahead of Labour’s tax raid on the wealthy. Chairman Lord Bamford – one of Britain’s richest men – and his relatives will share the payout, believed to be the biggest recorded in around decade.

It represents a 20 per cent increase on the £250 million distributed in 2022. The news comes after Rocester-based JCB’s profits rose by 43 per cent to £620.7m during 2023 after sales rose 14 per cent to £6.5billion.

The annual accounts were signed off just weeks before Labour swept to power with Chancellor Rachel Reeves preparing to deliver her first Budget today in which she is expected to unveil tax hikes targeted at the rich.

Tory peer Lord Bamford, 79, succeeded his father, Joseph Cyril Bamford, as chairman and managing director of the company in 1975 at the age of 30. He was born on the day his father set up JCB in Uttoxeter in 1945.

The company employs thousands of workers from Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire at its HQ in Rocester as well as factories in Cheadle and Uttoxeter, as well as over the county border in Foston.