‘They are going after everything rural’: inheritance tax U-turn does little to dampen farmers’ anger at Labour

Farmers protesting outside the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Few symbols were more potent than the wooden coffin bearing the inscription “RIP British agriculture, 30th October 2024” that greeted Labour’s environment minister at the annual Oxford farming conference.

It marked the date of Rachel Reeves’s first budget, when she announced plans to levy inheritance tax on farms. For the chancellor’s cabinet colleague Emma Reynolds, it underlined the anger among Britain’s farmers.