Rachel Reeves has to realise she can’t plough on with the farm tax | Phillip Inman
Rachel Reeves has to realise she can’t plough on with the farm tax | Phillip Inman
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The chancellor’s attempt to get rich landowners to pay their fair share was correct in principle. But this measure has missed the mark. Rachel Reeves needs to rid herself of troublesome farmers. It’s become obvious, if it wasn’t at the time of the budget, that they are not going to go away.
Their shouts of protest are getting louder and the petition against proposals to tax inherited farms is growing longer. Tractors in Parliament Square is never a good look, especially when it makes a Labour government look like it doesn’t understand the concerns of rural communities – which, if ministers are honest, they don’t.
Worse for the chancellor, farmers have a strong argument for a fundamental rethink of the new tax regime, which is why they will be in Westminster again this weekend, megaphones in hand, and are gathering more allies every day. Last week, Tesco joined Asda, the Co-op, Lidl and Morrisons in decrying the tax charge. Echoing the National Farmers Union (NFU), Tesco said that “the UK’s future food security is at stake” and that the government should pause the introduction of inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1m.
As the number of the NFU’s supporters multiplied, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) issued its analysis of the tax changes, due to take effect in April. In its role as the government’s independent forecaster, the OBR makes judgments about how much taxes will raise to judge how much the exchequer will need to borrow each year to meet spending plans.
