Labour’s assault on farmers risks inflicting great damage

Unlike their French counterparts who regularly bring their cities and ports to a standstill in disputes with the state, British farmers tend to spurn militant action. But they have been driven to protest by the decision of Rachel Reeves in her first Budget to remove the agricultural land relief on inheritance tax (IHT) from assets worth more than £1 million.

From next year they will be liable to 20 per cent IHT, putting many family farms at risk since they will have to sell up to pay the taxman. The complete failure of Labour’s largely urban-based ministerial team to understand the economics of farming has led to a stand-off.

On Tuesday thousands of farmers will descend on central London to lobby MPs and impress upon the Government the need to think again. But the signs are ominous. At the weekend Sir Keir Starmer attending a conference in north Wales said he would defend the Budget “all day long”.

He repeated the assertion that it had demonstrated a willingness to take “tough” decisions” when grabbing more tax is in reality an easy option for any government. Properly difficult choices on spending and welfare reform were ignored. Labour will now reap the whirlwind of the party’s visceral hostility to wealth creation and the countryside. One former No 10 aide even suggested the country didn’t really need small farmers.

Ministers say that three quarters of farms will not be affected by the changes. But of those producing the country’s food a great majority are over the £1 million threshold which means an inevitable impact on security of supply and higher prices for consumers.

There was evidently no conception in the Treasury of the consequences of this policy before it was announced. Even though the ramifications are now apparent, Ministers are stubbornly digging in and making increasingly implausible arguments to defend the indefensible. Rather than deal with excessive spending, Labour has decided to hit businesses, including farmers, while inflating the unproductive and so far unreformed public sector.

Sir Keir said he would defend fiscal decisions that “protect the payslips of working people” which is an insult to some of the hardest working people in (and on) the land but indicative of the worldview of a north London lawyer.

If the Government is not to inflict irreparable damage on British farming the Chancellor needs to swallow her pride and think again.