Starmer is accused of lying to farmers with 'tractor tax'

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of lying to farmers about wanting “a new relationship” with them after the Budget extended inheritance tax to family farms for the first time in history.

- DAVID MADDOX, MILLIE COOKE

The move means farms worth more than £1m are now subject to 20 per cent inheritance tax. Already the tax is being dubbed the “tractor tax” or the “Old McDonald tax” in some quarters and has been exacerbated by other measures in the Budget which have piled on costs for farming with no extra support from subsidies.

Farmers were already struggling because Brexit had brought an end to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the new UK subsidy policies were not working. Now they are having to take on the 6.7 per cent increase in the minimum wage and 15 per cent rise in employer national insurance contributions.

The row has been fueled by memories of Sir Keir’s 2023 speech to the National Farmers Union (NFU) when he pledged to have “a new relationship with the countryside and farmers”. He promised to provide “certainty” and “work with farmers”, insisting that he agreed “food security is national security”.

On the back of him wooing rural Britain, Labour beat the Tories into second place for rural seats in the election this year, winning 114 which are now vulnerable again. Baroness Batters, the former president of the NFU who introduced Sir Keir at the conference last year, said that she was still to hear a strategy from the prime minister on how he would deliver.

After Sir Keir promised transparency and to work with the farming community last year, she noted: “The [inheritance tax decision] is causing a massive shock, especially the lack of consultation and lack of an impact assessment.”