Britain's business minister Sajid Javid said the government should introduce a raft of corporate and personal tax cuts to soften the blow from an expected slowdown in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

Mr Javid told the Financial Times newspaper the government needed to switch its focus from reducing the deficit to stimulating economic growth.

Finance minister George Osborne last week dropped his policy of turning Britain's budget deficit into a surplus by 2020 and Mr Javid said on Wednesday that it was now hard to predict what would happen to the deficit.

Mr Javid said he did not think it could be brought down to zero by 2020.

“Does it mean 3 per cent becomes 4 per cent or 5 per cent? I don’t think anyone can say at this point.”

Reuters