Political opinion: South East farming leader says the ‘government has been sent a clear message’ as Labour MPs oppose the family farm tax

The vote, held in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening, was on Resolution 50 of the Finance Bill – this specifically relates to the inheritance tax proposal.

The vote isn’t binding but abstentions demonstrate that backbench MPs oppose the current policy, putting more pressure on the government to make amendments.

NFU Regional Board Chair for the East of England, who represents farmers across East Sussex and West Sussex, said: “This vote has given a clear message to the government.

“It demonstrates the strong level of opposition towards this damaging and seriously miscalculated policy.

“The current inheritance tax plans threaten the future of many small and medium-sized family farms in this region, seriously jeopardise our ability to deliver national food security, stifle investment in the farming industry and the whole wider rural economy and unfairly penalise elderly and vulnerable farmers, who will be given no time to reshape their businesses. The government’s irresponsible actions have left them in an impossible position.

“All of this is while raising a comparatively small amount for the Treasury and failing to tackle the issue of people just buying land to avoid paying tax.

“I thank the Labour MPs who have stood up for our farmers and shown their opposition to the family farm tax policy.

“We keep going and push for the government to abandon this policy or, at the very least, amend it to protect those most unfairly and severely impacted by it.”

The NFU, Office for Budget Responsibility, Efra Committee, MPs, councils and other organisations have continued to urge the government that its changes to inheritance tax, first announced in last year’s Autumn Budget, and are due to come into effect in April next year.

Ahead of last month’s Autumn Budget, more than 100 businesses and organisations, including the NFU, signed a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urging for the inheritance tax changes, due to be introduced in April, to be reconsidered.

The Chancellor announced a small change to the rules which will allow those farmers who are married, or have deceased spouses, to transfer their inheritance tax allowance to one another if one of them dies having not used their allowance.

But the NFU argues this is nowhere near enough to protect many family farms and is pushing for further amendments to protect those most severely and unfairly impacted by the inheritance tax changes.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “I’d like to thank all the Labour MPs who have stood up to show that they cannot support this pernicious policy.

“These MPs are the rural representatives of the Labour Party. They represent the working people of the countryside and have spoken up on behalf of their constituents. It is vital that the Chancellor and Prime Minister listen to the clear message they have delivered this evening.

“I’d also like to thank the farmers and growers who took the time to engage with their MPs to get the message out there.

“The next step in the fight against the family farm tax is removing the elderly and terminally ill from the eye of the storm of this unjust and unfair policy.”