Sir Keir Starmer insisted there would be no U-turn on farmers’ inheritance tax changes as he stressed the need for the Government to raise extra money.
The Prime Minister said he was not specifically targeting either family farms or wealthy landowners using agricultural land as a way of dodging tax, insisting it was not “aimed at a particular group of individuals”.
Commons Environment Committee chairman Alistair Carmichael claimed the Prime Minister had “undermined the case” made previously by the Government that the change was about tackling alleged tax avoidance.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said Sir Keir had confirmed it was “simply an indiscriminate revenue-raising measure”.
At the Budget Chancellor Rachel Reeves ended inheritance tax exemptions for farms worth more than £1 million, although in some cases that threshold could be as high as £3 million.
The move has led to protests from farmers who claim the death dues could force them to sell off land which could have been in a family for generations.
But appearing in front of the Liaison Committee of senior MPs, Sir Keir defended the way the policy had been drawn up, restating the Government’s view that the vast majority of farms will not be affected and the revenue raised was necessary to fund public services.
Asked by Mr Carmichael whether he was targeting the “super rich sheltering wealth” or family farmers, the Prime Minister said: “The purpose was to raise revenue in the Budget, so it wasn’t aimed at a particular group of individuals.”
He added: “What we tried to do with the regime we put in place was to protect the family farm, putting in a high threshold for inheritance tax for farms, which means that if you take the figures on the estates for farms, the vast majority of them are unaffected by the changes we put in place.
“But we weren’t aiming at a particular group.”
Sir Keir was repeatedly asked why Ms Reeves had not agreed to a meeting with farmers.
The Prime Minister said he had met NFU president Mr Bradshaw.
Asked by Mr Carmichael whether that was “an example you would be encouraging the Chancellor to follow”, Sir Keir said: “The Chancellor will manage her own diary.”
As MPs on the committee laughed and Sir Keir smiled, Mr Carmichael said: “We’re laughing here but we had one witness giving evidence to the select committee who, when talking about the impact on his farming business, broke down.
“So there are a lot of people who don’t find this funny.”
Sir Keir said he had met Mr Bradshaw to “hear for myself, first-hand from him, as to the points that he wanted to make”.
Asked if that meeting was with a view to making changes, the Prime Minister said: “No, we’ve got the policy, we’ve set out the policy and I was clear about that.
“But did I want to hear what he had to say in a respectful way? Yes, of course I did.”
Following the session, Mr Carmichael said: “The Prime Minister has undermined the case made by Treasury and Defra ministers who have sought to pretend that this was about tackling the Jeremy Clarksons and James Dysons of this world.
“It was clear from his answers that it is just about raising money.
“He could not have been clearer that if farmers are caught and farms have to be sold, then that is fine by him.”
Mr Bradshaw said: “Despite ministers previously claiming this was about punishing wealthy people avoiding tax, it’s clear from the Prime Minister’s words today that it is simply an indiscriminate revenue-raising measure with no thought given to who it impacts.”
