Rachel Reeves has been slammed for “destroying the family farm” by imposing inheritance tax on agricultural land, forcing grieving families to sell up to pay the huge bill. The Mail has more.
Kirstie Allsopp has accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of leaving all farmers “f***ed” following her inheritance tax raid during an explosive broadside online.
The furious TV presenter did not mince her words in her furious reaction to Ms. Reeves’s £40 billion tax bomb, raging she had “destroyed” the traditional family farm.
Reacting to the Budget, 53-year-old Ms. Allsopp said: “Rachel Reeves had f***ed all farmers, she has destroyed their ability to pass farms on to their children, and broken the future of all our great estates, it is an appalling decisions which shows the government has ZERO understanding of the what matters to rural voters.”
It comes after Ms. Reeves closed a tax loophole, making it harder for farmers to pass money down to future generations.
Previously those owning farmland benefitted from Agricultural Property Relief, meaning they were exempt from inheritance tax.
But now for those with farms worth more than £1 million, the ‘death tax’ will apply with a 50% relief at an effective rate of 20% from April 2026.
The rural community is up in arms over the changes to tax relief on farmland, with MPs in Britain’s farming heartland already being bombarded with furious letters.
One Tory with a large rural presence warned the Budget would “single-handedly kill the family farm”, the Spectator reported. While another says some constituents warned they would “have to now consider selling up”.
TV star Jeremy Clarkson also waded into the debate and said farmers had been “shafted” by Labour’s inheritance tax hike.
Mr. Clarkson, who owns a 1,000 acre farm in the Oxfordshire, posted on X: “Farmers. I know that you have been shafted today.
“But please don’t despair. Just look after yourselves for five short years and this shower will be gone.” …
Furious farmers today opened up and warned the nation’s rural heartlands were now at risk of being destroyed by the Chancellor’s inheritance tax overhaul.
Richard Payne, a farmer from Somerset, said he had already urged his son not to follow in the family business, which he feared was now “completely unviable” following the Chancellor’s Budget bombshell.
He added the £1 million limit would only cover the smallest farms and that the change could lead to more land being bought up by bigger businesses, forever changing Britain’s farming landscape.
“Right across the land there will be a sea-change for the worse. Everyone says they don’t like mega-farms and they don’t want factory farming, but I can see that will be one answer out of all of this,” he told the BBC.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, a potato farmer called Mark said he was left fearing for his livelihood.
He told Nicky Campbell: “It was a sleepless night last night. I started farming 27 years ago… and I have no idea where to go now.
“I’m a third generation farmer. My next door neighbour calls us a window box farmer; we’re just under 500 acres… I’ve worked out I will have £2 million to pay. I have no idea what I’ve got to do other than it will be sold and I will be the last generation which will farm it, which will be a sad state of affairs.”
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.