‘Rachel Reeves has destroyed all farmers’: Kirstie Allsopp and Jeremy Clarkson lead fury at Labour’s agriculture inheritance tax raid that will leave them struggling to survive_Nhy
Rachel Reeves is facing a furious backlash for leaving farmers ‘f***ed’ today after mounting a brutal raid on those who pass holdings to relatives.
TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp has led an angry response to the Chancellor’s crackdown on inheritance, accusing her of ‘destroying’ the traditional family farm.
From April 2026, inheritance tax will be levied at an effective rate of 20 per cent on the value of business and agricultural assets over £1million.
But campaigners warned that will affect almost all family farms, slamming the government for breaking ‘clear promises’ to protect the industry.
Allsopp said: ‘Rachel Reeves had f***ed all farmers, she has destroyed their ability to pass farms on to their children, and broken the future of all our great estates, it is an appalling decisions which shows the government has ZERO understanding of the what matters to rural voters.’
Steve Ridsdale, head of the British Farming Union, told the Mail: ‘This will decimate the industry.’
Meanwhile, industry leaders accused the Government of breaking ‘clear promises’ not to tamper with exemptions for agricultural property.
The National Farmers’ Union predicted the change – axing Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief on farms worth more than £1million – would ‘snatch away the next generation’s ability to carry on producing British food’ – and could lead to higher prices.
And the Country Land and Business Association said the move, from April 2026, would hit 70,000 farms – calling it ‘nothing short of a betrayal’ which would ‘jeopardise the future of rural businesses’.
Steve Ridsdale will face a £600,000 inheritance tax bill when his parents leave him their farm
Kirstie Allsopp has accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of leaving all farmers ‘f***ed’ following her inheritance tax raid during an explosive broadside online.
Jeremy Clarkson said farmers had been ‘shafted’ as he broke his silence on Labour’s inheritance tax hike announced in the Budget on Wednesday
Tory MP Neil O’Brien said: ‘She has gone way, way too low with the threshold for agricultural property – this is the end of the family farm.’
Previously those owning farmland benefitted from Agricultural Property Relief, meaning they were exempt from inheritance tax.
But now for those with farms worth more than £1million, the ‘death tax’ will apply with a 50 per cent relief at an effective rate of 20 per cent from April 2026.
The rural community is up in arms over the changes to tax relief on farmland, with MPs in Britain’s farming heartland already being bombarded with furious letters.
One Tory with a large rural presence warned the Budget would ‘single-handedly kill the family farm,’, the Spectactor reported. While another says some constituents warned they would ‘have to now consider selling up’.
TV star Jeremy Clarkson also waded into the debate and said farmers had been ‘shafted’ by Labour’s inheritance tax hike.
Mr Clarkson, who owns a 1,000 acre farm in the Oxfordshire, posted on X: ‘Farmers. I know that you have been shafted today.
‘But please don’t despair. Just look after yourselves for five short years and this shower will be gone.’
Mr Clarkson’s comments come after he revealed earlier this month that he was ‘days away from death’ and had to undergo lifesaving heart surgery after falling ill on holiday.
The 64-year-old said he began to feel ‘clammy’ with tightness in his chest, and pins and needles in his left arm.
He was admitted to hospital and told by doctors he must make major changes to his lifestyle.
Farmer Steve Ridsdale, chairman of British Farming Union, pictured at his farm in Bielby, Yorkshire with wife Sarah and son Tom, 12.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the country had ‘voted for change’ and vowed to ‘invest’ as she mounts one of the biggest raids in history in the Commons
Mr Clarkson previously said in his Sunday Times column that he ‘liked having the farm for very good reasons’, adding: ‘There are no death duties on farmland, so my children like me have it too.’
Ms Reeves, however, said in her speech that small family farms will continue to be protected from inheritance tax with three-quarters of claims unaffected.
The policy is one of a number of changes to death duty announced on Wednesday with pensions also becoming liable for tax.
From 2027, the value of pensions pots will be included in estates and caught in the net of inheritance taxes.
This means thousands of grieving families will be dragged into paying the dreaded death duty for the first time at a rate of 40 per cent.
But furious farmers today opened up and warned the nation’s rural heartlands were not at risk of being destroyed by the Chancellor’s inheritance tax overhaul.
Richard Payne, a farmer from Somerset, said he had already urged his son not to follow in the family business, which he feared was now ‘completely unviable’ following the Chancellor’s Budget bombshell.
He added the £1m limit would only cover the smallest farms and that the change could lead to more land being bought up by bigger businesses, forever changing Britain’s farming landscape.
‘Right across the land there will be a sea-change for the worse. Everyone says they don’t like mega-farms and they don’t want factory farming, but I can see that will be one answer out of all of this,’ he told the BBC.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, a potato farmer called Mark said he was left fearing for his livelihood.
He told Nicky Campbell: ‘It was a sleepless night last night. I started farming 27 years ago… and I have no idea where to go now.
Steve Ridsdale pictured at his farm in Bielby, Yorkshire. with wife Sarah, son Tom, 12
Rachel Reeves revealed her maiden Budget to MPs on Wednesday, in which she announced £40billion of taxes
Mr Ridsdale fears the inheritance tax bombshell could destroy his family farming business
‘I’m a third generation farmer. My next door neighbour calls us a window box farmer; we’re just under 500 acres… I’ve worked out I will have £2million to pay. I have no idea what I’ve got to do other than it will be sold and I will be the last generation which will farm it, which will be a sad state of affairs.’
He added: ‘The worst thing I’ve heard is that some people have actually taken their lives before the Budget because they thought that might be the only way to save money.’
Last night Steve Ridsdale told the Mail he would face a £600,000 inheritance tax bill when his parents leave him their farm.
Mr Ridsdale, 50, lives on a 260-acre farm in East Yorkshire, worth £4million, with his wife Sarah and son Tom, 12. It is owned by his father Terry, 81.
He slammed Labour for tampering with agricultural relief that allowed farmers to pass down their land to family without having to pay any inheritance tax.
Now the levy will apply to farmland worth more than £1million with an effective rate of inheritance tax on the rest at 20 per cent. ‘Rachel Reeves said it won’t affect family farms but it will affect all of them,’ said Mr Ridsdale, head of the British Farming Union. ‘This will decimate the industry. We’re looking at inheriting the farm soon and we’re going to have to sell a big chunk of it.
‘It is unbelievable. I wouldn’t be surprised if farmers were out on the streets and withholding food supplies. I’d be surprised if farmers are not loading beef or grain for some time. I certainly won’t be.
‘It is unbelievable. I wouldn’t be surprised if farmers were out on the streets and withholding food supplies,’ farmer Steve Ridsdale warned
‘There is no point in working. I might as well blow all the money and spend it on flash cars and fancy holidays.’
Mr Ridsdale, whose family has farmed for generations, believes the removal of the relief will also crash the price of land because farming is ‘not particularly profitable’.
‘The land is that price because there is no IHT on it,’ he added. ‘But your earning capacity from it is poor. The industry will contract massively and I can see it being another Liz Truss moment.’
Farmer Clive Bailye, who runs The Farming Forum discussion website, posted a tombstone image on social media. He said: ‘When my parents pass away, I will have no choice but to sell the land and property. My children will never have the opportunity to farm.’
The Staffordshire farmer added: ‘There are next to no farms worth under £1million except hobby farms. A £1million farm is 100 acres just for the land and you can’t make a living from 100 acres. It’s almost an insult to say £1million protects the family farm.
‘In a sector with the highest rate of suicide of any profession, some might think it’s time to pass on the farm before this comes in. Is the Government going to have blood on their hands?’
Industry leaders accused the Government of breaking ‘clear promises’ not to tamper with exemptions for agricultural property (file image)
Mr Clarkson bought Diddly Squat Farm in the Cotswolds back in 2008 but has managed it himself since 2019
The 64-year-old has documented his radical career change on his hit Prime Video show Clarkson’s Farm
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said the move would spell disaster for Britain’s farming industry, and could threaten to drive up food prices nationwide.
Reacting to the announcements, NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: ‘This Budget not only threatens family farms but will also make producing food more expensive.
‘This means more cost for farmers who simply cannot absorb it, and it will have to be borne by someone. Farmers are down to the bone and gristle, who is going to carry these costs?
‘It’s been a bad budget for farm confidence, which is already at an all-time low. After today farmers, including tenants, have more uncertainty and more worry, not less.
‘When you look farmers in the eye and make them a promise, keep it. The shameless breaking of those promises on Agricultural Property Relief will snatch away much of the next generation’s ability to carry on producing British food, plan for the future and shepherd the environment.’
Former Top Gear presenter Mr Clarkson also criticised Ms Reeves for not doing enough to help the beleaguered booze industry.
In her speech on Wednesday when she unveiled a staggering £40million tax bomb, the Chancellor cut draught duty by a meagre 1.7 per cent.
In a scathing critique, Mr Clarkson, who opened his £1million pub in the Cotswolds earlier this year, wrote on X: ‘Rachel Reeves. I literally daren’t comment,’ before adding: ‘We have a new government. It’s turning out to be hopeless.’
While Clarkson’s former Top Gear co-host James May lamented: ‘Cripes: a penny off a pint of beer. This is a small step to putting the ‘great’ back in to United Kingdom.’
Mr Clarkson bought Diddly Squat Farm in the Cotswolds back in 2008 but has managed it himself since 2019.
The 64-year-old has documented his radical career change on his hit Prime Video show Clarkson’s Farm.
The show, which has already run for three series, became the streaming platform’s most-watched original series in the UK last year.
