Analysis from Barclays Entrepreneurs Index found that 505 businesses were sold by entrepreneurs in 2016, a rise of 28 per cent compared with 2015.

The figures are the highest level seen since the bank began tracking activity in 2011.

Many business owners and their advisers say they chose to cash in early rather than risk watching their company fail if they tried to take it to the next level.

And one financial advisor believes the move was driven by fears Labour leader and veteran socialist politician Jeremy Corbyn could have become prime minister.

Caroline Belcher, a partner at advisory firm Cavendish Corporate Finance, said: “There is so much uncertainty about Brexit and whether Corbyn gets in a lot of people are thinking, ‘We know what the situation is today, let’s exit’.”

The concerns come just a month after chancellor Philip Hammond called the Labour party an “existential challenge to our economic model” as he attacked Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell in a speech at the Tory conference – calling them “dinosaurs who had broken out of their cases”

Ms Belcher also says the vote to leave the European Union was another factor along with the fall of Stirling since the referendum vote last June, which has attracted interest from overseas buyers hoping to cash in on the plummeting pound.

Andy Houston, head of Barclays Wealth, added: “While we are seeing moments of wealth creation through these M&A deals, it’s important that businesses are scaling up and not just selling up.”

The trend of selling up may be the result of an uncertain political and economic environment in 2016, which made it difficult for companies to plan ahead, the bank said.

However Barclays’ wealth management arm has warned the trend could, in itself, could have a damaging impact on Britain’s long-term economic prospects.

Yet the figures show signs that entrepreneurialism in the UK is not dead.

Some 646,000 new businesses were created in 2016, eight per cent more than in 2015, the analysis found.

And the number of workers in entrepreneurial businesses rose by 24 per cent over the last year.