Labour has doubled down on its tax raid on farmers sparking fierce criticism and a petition calling for its reversal reaching 125,000 signatures.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Environment Secretary Steve Reed defended their raid as necessary for raising public spending, calling it a ‘fair and balanced’ approach that targets the rich buying up estates to dodge inheritance tax.
They plan to levy a 20 tax on farms worth more than £1 million, meaning farmers’ children will be saddled with huge tax bills when they inherit their parents’ farms.
This will spell disaster for many asset-rich cash-poor farms and result in sales of land to foot the bill, breaking up farms and worsening our food security.
The defence did not go down well as several high-profile names weighed in on the side of the farmers.
Sir James Dyson said: “The very fabric of our economy is being ripped apart. No business can survive Reeves’s 20 per cent tax grab. It will be the death of entrepreneurship. Think of the jobs for ‘working people’ that will be lost – or never created.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, argued to ‘leave farmers alone’ in response to a post criticising the government’s decision.
While celebrities continue to flock to farmers’ side, thousands of rural people have been signing a petition calling on the government to ‘overturn the family farm tax’.
Launched by the National Farming Union, the petition has been signed by 129,819 people in just two days, with 3,000 signatures being added in the last hour alone.
This comes after Tom Bradshaw, President of the NFU, met Steve Reed today to urge him to not tax farmers when they die.
Emerging from the meeting, Bradshaw said there had been no resolution on the issue, adding: “We’ve made very passionately our perception clear, that this tax change is completely unfair.
“It had been ruled out by the secretary of state in the run-up to the election and now there are many family farms right across the United Kingdom that are worried for their future.”
“Obviously, we fully dispute the figures the Treasury has been using and we’ve played back Defra’s own figures.
“So, the Treasury is saying only 27% of farms will be within scope of these changes, Defra’s own figures suggest that two-thirds of farms will be in scope.
“How they can have that wide a discrepancy within Government is quite unbelievable.”
The lack of agreement at this meeting means will addfuel to the fire for those farmers planning to protest in London on November 19.
Farming forums have been awash with plans to gridlock roads, spray manure on streets and perhaps most potently, threaten to stop goods leaving their farms to try and impose empty shelves on Britain.
A large part of the dismay at Labour’s decision is over the paltry amount of money the scheme is set to raise.
The Treasury’s own figures estimate the tax will raise £520million a year by 2030, a miniscule figure in relation to public spending, which is what Labour has been using to justify the tractor tax in the first place.
For example, £520million would fund the NHS for one day and five hours. The rise in Employers’ National Insurance Contributions- Reeves’ biggest tax raising measure- is set to rake in £25billion, 50 times more than the farmer tax.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw added: “Many farmers want to be militant.
Now we are not encouraging that in any way shape or form but the Government need to understand that there is a real strength of feeling behind what this change means for the future of family farming in this country.
“We’ll wait to hear from the Government and Treasury and see if we can get to a resolution.”
Rupert Lowe, a Reform MP from a farming background, has been leading the tirade against Reeves war on farmers.
He said this morning: “Trust me when I say this – MPs DO NOT understand the damage they are doing.
“As one of the three farming MPs, the level of understanding around agriculture in Westminster is diabolical.
“They think a farm is where you take the young children on a weekend day out of the city to stroke goats, ride the tractor and drink oat cappuccinos.
“If they continue down this path, thousands of grieving British farming families will lose their farms. A cruel and spiteful move from a Labour Party that despises rural Britain.”
The continuing row comes as a picture of Defra Secretary Steve Reed wearing luxury, leather lined Le Chameau wellies priced at £420 circulates on social media.
Commentators have highlighted how the wellies symbolise Labour’s disconnect with countryside, stating farmers would never wear such fancy
Lord Alli, the Labour mega donor who was given a pass for No. 10, is handily a director of the wellie company. He reportedly gave Reed the boots which were valued at £270, just under £300 threshold for declaring gifts.
Reed is MP for urban constituency for Streatham in south London and was raised in St Albans.
