Farmers accuse Labour of ‘promising the world and giving us nothing’ in fresh uproar at family farm tax

During a speech to farmers that was repeatedly interrupted by hecklers and critics, the environment secretary insisted it was the Tories who were to blame for the problems faced by the agricultural industry. Farmers have accused the government of “promising the world and giving us nothing” as the environment secretary faced another barrage of criticism over Labour’s inheritance tax raid on family farms.

Steve Reed sought to shift the blame for the challenges facing the agricultural industry onto the Conservatives’ Brexit deal, which he said had left farmers “badly let down”. Mr Reed said farmers had been sold a lie during Brexit talks that they would maintain access to European markets, but that Sir Keir Starmer’s ongoing reset of post-Brexit relations with Brussels would help address the dropoff, which has seen exports to Europe have fallen by a fifth since 2018.

But farmers immediately hit back at Mr Reed, accusing Labour of being “determined to make the Tories’ Brexit work”. “They are aggressively trying to derail a legal challenge to the dreadful Australian trade deal which saw Boris Johnson famously ‘cede the whole kingdom over dinner’,” Save British Farming founder Liz Webster told The Independent.

Leicestershire-based farmer Oli Fletcher said Brexit had hit farmers because it unleashed Michael Gove’s vision of an “agricultural transition” upon the countryside. But he added that “in a bizarre lapse of ideological direction, the new Labour government has doubled down on it”.

The government’s tax change means previously exempt farms will be hit with a 20 per cent levy on farming assets worth more than £1m, with critics claiming it will force family farmers to sell up and rip the heart out of Britain’s countryside. It came after Sir Keir promised at the National Farming Union’s (NFU) conference in 2023 to reset the government’s relationship with farming and rural Britain.

At this year’s conference on Tuesday, NFU chief Tom Bradshaw lashed out at Rachel Reeves over the changes, which he said had left older farmers in a “very real dilemma”. “Unless they die before April 2026 [when the changes take effect], their families will face a family farm tax bill they simply cannot afford to pay,” Mr Bradshaw told a hall of more than 600 gathered farmers.

With a fresh round of protests against the tax change raging outside the conference centre in London, an emotional Mr Bradshaw added: “What a cruel position to put elderly people in, by no way of warning, by way of a broken price. “Government, you must correct this urgently.”.

Speaking to The Independent outside the conference centre, Paul, a farmer working for Ben Smith & Sons in Wantage said Labour “promised us the world and have given us nothing… it’s just lies”. Paul highlighted industry fears about food shortages as a result of the policy change, adding: “When is somebody going to start listening? It will be too late if they are not careful.”.

As well as opposition from farmers, the chancellor has been urged to U-turn by every major supermarket, with grocers signing a joint letter warning it threatens “the long-term stability of the nation's food resilience”. Inside the conference hall, Mr Reed’s speech to the NFU conference was repeatedly interrupted by hecklers and critics. And, during a brutal Q&A following the speech, Mr Reed was told Labour has taken “an a** about face way of doing tax policy” and seeing vulnerable elderly farmers as “collateral damage”.

One farmer in the audience raised the case of his 90-year-old mother, a widow of over 20 years whose family have continuously worked on their farm for 400 years. “She is now wishing her life away at the end of April next year, her and countless other widows and widowers are now in a similar position where the best tax advice is to ensure they are not here by April next year,” the farmer warned.

Mr Reed said he could not comment on individual cases, but he insisted that “nobody should wish their lives away” as a result of Labour’s tax changes. He apologised to gathered farmers for the tax changes, blaming the Conservatives for the change, saying: “I am genuinely sorry at the shock that decision created across the sector, it happened because we had a much tougher set of financial circumstances than we expected and stabilising the economy is one of the most important things we need to do.”.