Emotional NFU leader says farmers have been ‘stabbed in the back’ by Labour’s inheritance tax raid as minister insists protesters are wrong about how many will be hit after 13,000 descended on Westminster_Nhy
Farmers have been ‘stabbed in the back’ by Labour’s inheritance tax raid on their land, the president of the NFU said as 13,000 swapped the countryside for the capital to vent their fury.
An emotional Tom Bradshaw told members gathered for a mass lobby of their MPs in London over the changes to inheritance tax for farming businesses that the policy ‘will rip the heart of family farms’.
A protest alongside the event drew thousands of farmers and their tractors to Westminster, led by television presenter Jeremy Clarkson.
They are furious at Labour’s plan to make them pay IHT on the agricultural value of their land – at a reduced rate – for the first time.
Campaigners say that it will mean the end of many small farms with tight margins.
Mr Bradshaw received a standing ovation from the gathered farmers after his impassioned speech, in which he said an estimated 75 per cent of commercial farm businesses ‘were caught in the eye of this storm’ of a policy which he described as a ‘stab in the back’.
However PM Sir Keir Starmer refused to back down this afternoon, as ministers said that the estimates made by the NFU and others were simply wrong.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed told MPs: ‘The numbers I’ve heard bandied around are enormous and very, very frightening if people were to believe them.’
An emotional Tom Bradshaw told NFU members gathered for a mass lobby of their MPs in London that the policy ‘will rip the heart of family farms’
A protest alongside the event draw thousands to Westminster, led by television presenter Jeremy Clarkson
However Sir Keir Starmer refused to back down this afternoon, as ministers said that the estimates made by the NFU and others were simply wrong
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch met with Jeremy Clarkson to discuss Labour’s inheritance tax changes
Appearing before MPs in the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Mr Reed said figures being used by critics were based on Defra data on the value of farms ‘and then people have drawn a straight line to an inheritance tax liability, but you can’t do that, because ownership is much more complex than one person, one farm’.
He added: ‘Of course we want family farming to continue, just as it always has done.’
Later, the PM told a press conference at the G20 summit in Brazil he is ‘very confident’ that the ‘vast majority’ of farmers will not be affected by changes to inheritance tax.
‘On the question of inheritance tax, the example I’ve given is a typical example of parents wanting to pass on a farm to one of their children, and in those cases, when you look at all the thresholds available, that means that only farms over the value of £3 million will be affected by the changes,’ Sir Keir said.
‘And therefore the vast majority of farms will be unaffected, and those that are affected will only pay half the inheritance tax that other people pay- 20 per cent – and they will have a 10-year period over which to pay it.
‘And so that’s why I’m very confident in saying that the vast majority will not be affected.’
Sir Keir added that ‘how farmers then arrange their affairs within their family is obviously a matter for them’.
It came after rural affairs minister Daniel Zeichner claimed farmers can avoid paying inheritance tax ‘with a bit of planning’, despite also saying the aim of Labour’s policy was to ‘clamp down’ on tax avoidance.
He told Times Radio: ‘Tens of thousands of family farms across the country will not be affected by this and of course, with a bit of planning, no inheritance tax will be payable at all. So we’re absolutely determined to protect the family farms.
‘But what we have been seeing is people coming in, buying up land for purposes of tax avoidance. And we just don’t think that’s the right thing for the future of the farming sector or the right thing in general for the public.
‘Everyone else has to pay inheritance tax. And we think we should clamp down on these tax avoidance.’
Tory MP James Cleverly, the former home secretary, said Mr Zeichner’s comments represtented a ‘proper Through the Looking Glass moment from the Labour Government’.
Farmers have reacted with anger and dismay to the inheritance tax changes for farming businesses, which limit the existing 100 per cent relief for farms to only the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property.
Some farmers warn they will have to sell off land to meet the inheritance tax costs and are threatening to strike over the pressures they say they are being put under by Government policy, while there are warnings over people’s mental health.
Mr Bradshaw warned the inheritance tax change was the straw that broke the camel’s back, along with a host of issues in the Budget
Farmers have reacted with anger and dismay to the inheritance tax changes for farming businesses, which limit the existing 100 per cent relief for farms to only the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed told MPs: ‘The numbers I’ve heard bandied around are enormous and very, very frightening if people were to believe them.’
Some farmers warn they will have to sell off land to meet the inheritance tax costs and are threatening to strike over the pressures they say they are being put under by Government policy, while there are warnings over people’s mental health.
To sustained applause as he became emotional, he said: ‘The human impact of this policy is simply not acceptable, it’s wrong.
‘Our request is very simple, this is a policy that will rip the heart out of Britain’s family farms, launched on bad data with no consultation, and it must be halted and considered properly.’
And he told journalists that Rachel Reeves had refused to engage with the NFU on the issue, adding: ‘The human impact of this policy is one I don’t believe they intended but the longer they leave this hanging, the more I start to think it’s vindictive, rather than miscalculated.’
But a Government spokesperson said ministers from both Treasury and the Environment Department (Defra) had regularly engaged with the NFU.
