New Prime Minister Andy Burnham is coming under renewed pressure from Esther McVey to reverse the Family Farm Tax in next month’s Budget.
Ms McVey said the farming sector was facing a once in a generation crisis putting food security and the future of British farming at risk.
She, along with other Conservative MPs, have written to the PM urging him and the new Chancellor to act.
Ms McVey said: “Since Labour announced this policy in October 2024, more than 6,000 agricultural businesses across the country have ceased trading and one in four have reduced their workforces.
“If the Prime Minister doesn’t change course, the consequences will be catastrophic.
“Farmers used to invest billions into growing the wider rural economy but because of Labour’s anti-farming policies investment is falling as farmers look with fear and uncertainty to the future.”
In April this year, decade long rules exempting farms from inheritance tax (when passing on landholdings to family) ended. Farmers have consistently warned the money is not there for tax bills and the only way to raise the cash is to sell land, putting their businesses at risk.
In their letter the MPs wrote: “We do not have to rehearse the arguments as to why the Family Farm Tax is a misguided policy. You will be well aware that most farms do not have liquid wealth. The value of their property is within the soil that grows food for the UK, within the buildings that house livestock or store grain, in the machinery that allows farmers to work their land, or within the farmhouse where farmers live while working 18-hour days, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They cannot simply sell any of these critical assets in order to pay an inheritance tax bill that may amount to many hundreds of thousands of pounds.”
The MPs pointed to comments made by Mr Burnham to farmers following extreme heat and drought, when he pledged support to them.
But the MPs warned: “If these are to be more than just words, the Government needs to take real action. Farming is not an industry that can be built or sustained on warm words, vibes, or empty rhetoric. Without a thriving farming sector, UK food security, employment, and our rural economies suffer.”
Chancellor John Healey will deliver his first Budget on October 28.
