It is the post-Budget battle the Government did not necessarily anticipate: Labour versus the farmers. The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) held a mass lobby of MPs this morning, calling on their representatives to oppose the imposition of inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million. That is not all. Thousands more are expected to descend on Whitehall for a rally.
They are likely to receive a sympathetic ear from MPs and Londoners alike. Farmers work long and unsociable hours in all weathers to put food on the plates of millions. They are on the frontline of climate change, and have had to put up with other man-made disruptions, such as Brexit and the huge impact on farming and exports.
This may of course be a fight that Labour thinks it will win. Indeed this morning, Environment Secretary Steve Reed came out swinging, pointing out that only around 500 wealthy farming estates are forecast to pay inheritance tax (IHT) under the proposed changes. Yet this is the same Labour Party that barely months ago was courting the rural vote, with Keir Starmer promising in a speech to the NFU last year a “new relationship with the countryside and farming communities” based on “respect and on genuine partnership.” How times have changed.
The issue of food security is something of a red herring. While food security is vital, listed as one of the 13 sectors listed in the government’s “Critical National Infrastructure” of things that are “necessary for a country to function and upon which daily life depends”, Britain has not been wholly self-sufficient in this area for centuries. Instead, governments have sought to ensure security of supply. Consequently, this is merely the latest example of the tough choices Labour pretended away in opposition, that are now inflicting political pain. Farmers are today’s fall guys, but they will not be the last.
With its large parliamentary majority, based mainly on the votes of urban constituencies, Labour is likely to push ahead with these changes. Given the fiscal constraints it inherited, a higher tax burden is inevitable. But Starmer does appear to have ditched any pretence to be a champion of rural England. He must hope there are enough votes elsewhere, come the next election.
