No one should be wishing their life away, Environment Secretary Steve Reed has said as he was repeatedly challenged by farmers over inheritance tax. Mr Reed addressed the National Farmers’ Union conference in London on Tuesday, setting out measures to increase the profitability of agriculture which he said was the problem at the “heart of the crisis in the sector”.
But he was heckled and repeatedly challenged in a question-and-answer session over elderly farmers who thought the best tax planning was to die before the inheritance tax changes came into effect in April 2026. David Passmore, a cattle, sheep and arable farmer in Oxfordshire whose 90-year-old mother owns a share of the farm with him, said there were thousands of people who were wishing their lives away over the new inheritance tax proposals.
Mr Reed said he could not comment on individual cases, but added: “No one should wish their lives away.”. He apologised for having to take the “very difficult decision” to introduce the tax to ensure financial stability in the economy. But he said: “We will focus on making farms more profitable because that seems to me the problem at the heart of the crisis in the sector.”.
After the question and answer session, Mr Passmore said the Environment Secretary failed to have empathy and compassion in his response, and said Mr Reed should be representing the interests of farmers to the Treasury. Mr Reed outlined plans for a 25-year farming roadmap and food strategy, which put food production at its core and makes farm businesses more resilient to shocks such as severe flooding, drought and animal disease.
And it will ensure farming is a “sector which recognises restoring nature is not in competition with sustainable food production, but is essential to it”, he said. As farmers outside the conference centre in central London sounded their tractor horns in protest, Mr Reed announced measures including extending the seasonal worker visa scheme for five years, support for precision breeding and new technology.
He also announced new requirements for government catering contracts to favour “high quality, high welfare products that British producers are well placed to meet”. And he said: “Ours is an outward-facing trading nation, but I want to be clear that we will never lower our food standards in trade agreements.
“We will promote robust standards nationally and internationally, and will always consider whether overseas produce has an unfair advantage.”. He announced £30 million to increase payment rates in higher level stewardship schemes, to reward farmers at the forefront of nature-friendly farming schemes.
National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw told his organisation’s conference that the inheritance tax policy was “morally wrong and economically flawed”. And he warned: “The mental health pressures on our industry today are unbearable and unacceptable.
“Many older farmers are now facing that very real dilemma that unless they die before April 2026, their families will face a family farm tax they simply cannot afford to pay. “What a cruel position to put elderly people in by no way of warning, by way of a broken promise.
“Government, you must correct this urgently.”. Talking to journalists, Mr Bradshaw warned that the inheritance tax issue was sucking the oxygen out of all other measures for farming, and made it “incredibly difficult for businesses” to plan. Pointing to geopolitical uncertainty such as the situation in Ukraine, he warned: “There’s never been a more important time for this country to take control of its food supply than now.
“And yet, it still seems to me that they’re (the Government) absolutely taking it for granted, and they will not accept the impact that this has on the future investment for domestic food production.”. He added he was sure the Government knew it had got it wrong on inheritance tax about the “insidious position” elderly farmers had been put, but said he did not know “whether they’ve got a political way out”.
Asked if he thought Chancellor Rachel Reeves was a coward for not meeting him over the issue, he said. “Yes, if she’s so willing, if she believes this policy is right, she should have the courage to sit down with us and say, ‘I am right for this reason, for this reason, for this reason. Now get back in your box and go away’.”.
