A hike in gambling tax rates in this month’s budget would cause serious harm to British racing’s finances and risk “derailing” the sport, ministers have been warned.

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The comments from racing and betting industry leaders came following a report in The Guardian which said Treasury officials are considering proposals from think tanks to increase gambling duties and raise up to £3 billion to help tackle the ‘black hole’ chancellor Rachel Reeves says has been found in the UK’s finances.

One of the proposals, by the Institute for Public Policy Research, calls for general betting duty, charged on bookmakers’ profits from sports betting, to be doubled to 30 per cent and for remote gaming duty to rise from 21 per cent to 50 per cent.