Labour’s Budget attack on farmers likened to Thatcher’s closure of mines: ‘It will change rural Britain forever’

Rachel Reeves’ Budget attack on farms will affect rural Britain for generations to come in the same way the closure of the mines did, farmers have warned.

The Labour Chancellor’s capping of farmers’ inheritance tax relief at £1million has drawn fierce criticism from people across the nation, with several high-profile celebrities like Jeremy Clarkson, Kirstie Allsopp and Jay Rayner weighing in against Reeves.

They have highlighted how asset-rich but cash-poor farms have little to no scope to pay inheritance tax bills from farm income, meaning a sale of land and machinery would have to be made to cover the bill.

As a result, thousands of small family farms would be broken up to the point they are no longer viable, damaging the fabric of British countryside and worsening the UK’s food security.

Thousands of young farmers set to inherit their parents’ farms will no longer be able to do so, ending many farming dynasties who in many cases have been custodians of the countryside for hundreds of years.

Clive Bailye, a farmer in Staffordshire, warned: “It will change rural Britain and the British landscape forever.

“It knocks on to everything in those towns, the local shops, the pubs, the schools, the livestock auctioneers, the markets, the suppliers, the drivers – the lot.

“Family farms are just the base of the pyramid.

“I just cannot believe this wasn’t thought through, and the ‘£1million’ sum exposes it. It’s not just short of the mark, it’s ten times short of the mark.”

Like how Thatcher’s closure of mines across Britain cast a long shadow over former coal towns, with much deep-rooted anti-Conservative sentiment still lingering today, Labour may face similar problems in the future in rural communities if they don’t scrap the policy.

Victoria Vyvvan, president of the Country Land and Business Association, called the decision “nothing short of a betrayal” which will “rip the rug out from underneath hardworking farmers” and “dynamite their livelihoods”.

Di Clements, a dairy farmer in southwest Wales, said: “I’m stunned. We’ve slogged our guts out for 40 years, making so many sacrifices, and it’s all been for what? To saddle our children with a huge debt when we die.

“We always knew Labour never cared for farmers, now Labour has proved us right.”

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Writer and broadcaster Rachel Johnson asked: “Is it really worth f***ing family farms, undermining food security, forcing land clearances and fire sales of agricultural assets, breaking the continuity of generations of stewardship, just to raise a measly £500million to chuck into the black hole?”

Bailye warned Reeves’ reforms would probably end up creating ‘vast megafarms’ or, even worse, see large corporations buying up tracts of land with zero desire to farm it, only to plant trees to hit carbon offsetting targets.

He added: “The irony is those companies will probably be non-UK or based offshore and not even paying tax anyway.”

This comes after a humiliating clip of Sir Keir Starmer talking at an NFU conference only last year has been widely circulated on social media.

In it he says: “Losing a farm is not like losing any other business, it can’t come back. That’s why the lack of urgency from the Government, the lack of attention to detail, the lack of long-term planning… It’s not on, you deserve better than that.”

GB News political editor Christopher Hope reports Number 10 have said today: “Three quarters of farming estates are not affected by the IHT tax change” and that 60 per cent of land sales last year were to private investors and ‘lifestylers’.

Number 10 insist: “People buying up land not for farming but to exploit a loophole is not good for farming or food production.”

They also said that the Prime Minister has no plans to meet Jeremy Clarkson.