Labour And The Farmers

Labour has made a mess of its farming inheritance tax idea. It is has backfired badly. At a time when the major priority should be to maximise home production of foods of all kinds, there should be a coherent plan to do so, with an enthused and re-energised farming community on side. Instead, the small farmers especially, feel under attack and threatened.

When looked at in detail the proposals are less onerous and better thought out than the headlines and anger which surrounds them. The IHT rate is half the normal level and in many cases the threshold will be £3 million. The payments can be spread over ten years if needed.

But there are wider considerations which do require serious reform and which must be tackled. There is all the difference between land in continuous agricultural production by active farmers and vast land banks held by billionaires to avoid inheritance tax.

While nobody wants to protect the billionaires, who should indeed pay inheritance tax on all their assets, everybody wants to help hard working farmers give us  food security in a modern eco framework. An agricultural development plan is urgently needed which enables farmers to make a good living.

The introduction of proper production quotas for genuine farmers and farming families in exchange for benefits and subsides  would be a big step forward. Too much of their livelihood is in the hands of the big supermarkets whose methods are often exploitative and nasty and end up by killing off production rather than increasing it.

Starmer and Reeves need to get a grip of this.