Conservatives back British Farmers

Today, Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, will give her backing to thousands of farmers from across the United Kingdom, as they take a stand against the Labour government's cruel and illogical plans to implement a Family Farm Tax that seeks to devastate British farming as we know it. 

Figures from the Country Land and Business Association suggest that an average 250 acre arable farm will be forced to sell 20% of its land under Labour's plans. Despite calls from the Conservatives, Keir Starmer has failed to provide an assessment of the impact of his plans on food security.

So far, HM Treasury and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been unable to agree how many farms this will hit. HMT figures suggest around a quarter of farms, whilst DEFRA believes it will be two thirds.

Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, said:

“I'm proud to stand by the thousands of farmers protesting this cruel tax hike by Labour.

“The Labour government clearly doesn't understand, or care about rural communities, and now families are having to sell their farms, with knowledge that has been handed down through generations lost forever.

“Under my leadership the Conservative Party will staunchly oppose the family farm tax, which threatens our vital rural economy and our food security, with increased costs and a greater reliance on imports."

Victoria Atkins MP, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment and Rural Affairs, said:

“Today, farmers from across the country are leaving their farms to come and send a clear message to this city-dwelling Labour government who don't understand or seemingly care for the countryside.

“Labour's cruel family farm tax will destroy the farming industry as we know it. Farming families who have farmed their land for generations will be forced to sell it off to pay Labour's tax bill.

“I have been inundated with the most heartbreaking of stories from farming families across the UK. Labour's response is that farmers should ‘look calmly' at their calamitous futures. Keir Starmer is running away from the realities of his policy, but we Conservatives will stand with our farmers to make sure that this brutish Labour government cannot ignore them forever.”

Andrew Ward, Farmer said:

“Our job is to put food on people's plates and we should be planting next year's crops. But, the march today is too important to miss.

“The Budget threatens the destruction of the farming inudstry as we know it and family farms and other businesses will be lost. If this happens, we can't feed people and wildlife will also suffer. It's that simple.

“We haven't seen a threat to our rural way of life like this in decades. We have to make sure our voices are heard and the Government listens.”

ENDS 

For further information, please contact the Press Office on 020 7984 8121 or email us at press@conservatives.com.  

Notes to Editors 

• Labour have announced a family farm tax, which will affect thousands of farms and families across the country. In the 2024 Autumn Budget, Labour announced that Agricultural Property Relief on inheritance tax would be reduced from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. The NFU reacted by saying that this change ‘threatens family farms' and will ‘make producing food more expensive' – risking our domestic food security (HM Treasury, Autumn Budget 2024, p. 48, 30 October 2024, link; NFU, 30 October 2024, link).    

• The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board said that the changes to Agricultural Property Relief will mean that a farm holding with a value – the average for farm holdings – of £2.2 million will incur a £240,000 inheritance tax. The Agriculture and Horticulture Development board said that as a result of the changes made to Agricultural Property Relief in the Budget the ‘Average farm holding value of £2.2 million would incur £240,000 inheritance tax from April 2026' (AHDB, 31 October 2024, link).

• Over 100,000 farms could be hit by Labour's Family Farm tax. Research has shown that more than 100,000 farms could be hit by Labour's Family Farm Tax, with the owners of an average-sized farm having to work for two years for free to meet the bill of £140,000. Almost half of the farms in England (49 per cent) are worth over £1.5 million, meaning that 102,041 of the 209,000 farm holdings in England could be subject to changes to inheritance tax (Daily Mail, 10 November 2024, link).

• The National Farmers Union (NFU) has warned that Labour's Family Farm Tax could increase food costs to consumers. The NFU has warned that Family Farm Tax could increase food costs to consumers and that the changes to the Agricultural Property Relief will deal a ‘hammer blow to farming families' (NFU, Updates and Information, 1 November 2024, link).