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Environment minister defends tax changes as farmers protests in London
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Farmers protest in central London over the changes to inheritance tax rules. Photograph: David Hughes/PA
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Farmers arrive in Whitehall for protest about inheritance tax plan
Good morning. There is an old Westminster adage that says governments should never pick fights with professions that feature as characters in childrens’ books. Voters are happy to see people like bankers, managers and property developers get hammered, the theory goes, but they are inclined to sympathise with postmen (note to the Guardian style guide editors – it is Postman Pat, not Postal worker Pat), doctors, train drivers – and of course farmers. As the last two years have shown, governments have not always been guided by this rule, but it has some merit nevertheless.
Which is why today’s protests in Westminster will be so interesting. It is the first big, public showdown between the farming lobby and the Labour government and, with both sides digging in, it probably won’t be the last.
Farmers are angry because they believe plans in the budget applying inheritance tax to bigger farms will result in families who have been farming the same land for generations having to sell up to pay the inheritance tax bill. The government claims most proper farmers won’t be affected, and that it is entirely right to close a loophole that increasingly is being exploited by very rich people who do not have a clue how to drive a tractor but who want to pass on vast wealth to their children tax free.
Helena Horton has written a good explainer testing the arguments on both sides.
Steve Reed, the environment minister, has defended the tax changes. This morning he posted this on social media.
Half of farmland sold last year went to non-farmers including wealthy individuals trying to avoid inheritance tax.
It’s right that tax changes will ensure everyone pays their fair share - and young farmers can realise their dream of buying their own farm.
And the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been publicising this joint statement from Reed and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor.
But Tom Bradshaw, president of the NFU, says that farmers would keep going until they got the government to change its mind. He told Sky News this morning.
[Protests] will carry on. They cannot have a policy in place which has such disastrous human impacts and think we’re going to go quiet.
We don’t know what’s next, but I know the membership have never been so united in trying to overturn something in the time that I’ve been farming.
Asked if farmers could carry on until the government backed down, Bradshaw replied: “Absolutely.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: The National Farmers Union holds a rally at Church House in Westminster.
11am: Farmers hold a separate protest in Whitehall.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
11.45am: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, gives a speech on policing reform at the National Police Chiefs’ Council conference.
Late morning (UK time): Keir Starmer is doing interviews with broadcasters at the G20 summit in Brazil.
2.30pm: Steve Reed, the environment secretary, gives evidence to the environment committee about the work of his department.
5pm (UK time): Starmer holds a press conference in Brazil.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X because the site has become too awful. But individual Guardian journalists are still there, I have still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary. I was trying Threads for a bit, but I am stepping back from that because it’s not a good platform for political news.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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UK retailers warn Reeves of £7bn hit from budget tax rises
Large UK retailers including Tesco, Boots, Marks & Spencer and Next have written to Rachel Reeves to say that a £7bn increase in annual costs after last month’s budget would lead to job cuts and higher prices, Mark Sweney reports.
NFU president says farmers willing to work with ministers on alternative policy to 'stop people using land as tax dodge'
In an interview with BBC News, Tom Bradshaw, president of the NFU, said that farmers felt particularly aggrieved because last year, when Steve Reed was shadow environment secretary, he said Labour was not planning to change agricultural property relief (the inheritance tax exemption). He said farmers only started hearing rumours that the government was going to go back on this about a week before the budget.
He said he did not accept the government’s claims that most farms will not be affected by the change. Instead, he said, “75% of the commerical farms in the United Kingdom will be within the scope of this policy change.”
Bradshaw also said farmers were willing to work with the government to produce a better version of the policy. He explained:
This policy is ill thought through. There’s still a 20% benefit for the uber-wealthy to invest in agricultural land, and with the changes they’ve made to pensions, they’ve now incentivised people to rip money out of pensions and invest in up to £1m of agricultural land. That is not going to deliver for food security. It’s absolutely nonsensical. It’s not joined up. There’s no thought about the impact on food production or the families that produce this country’s food …
Let’s sit down [with the government]. Give us the question. Tell us what the exam question is. We will work with you. If you want to stop people using land as a tax dodge, let’s work out the policy that does that. But this policy is not the answer.
Some farmers have been driving tractors into Parliament Square to publicise the protest.
Here is a story from Jamie Grierson this morning about the protests.
Farmers arrive in Whitehall for protest about inheritance tax plan
Good morning. There is an old Westminster adage that says governments should never pick fights with professions that feature as characters in childrens’ books. Voters are happy to see people like bankers, managers and property developers get hammered, the theory goes, but they are inclined to sympathise with postmen (note to the Guardian style guide editors – it is Postman Pat, not Postal worker Pat), doctors, train drivers – and of course farmers. As the last two years have shown, governments have not always been guided by this rule, but it has some merit nevertheless.
Which is why today’s protests in Westminster will be so interesting. It is the first big, public showdown between the farming lobby and the Labour government and, with both sides digging in, it probably won’t be the last.
Farmers are angry because they believe plans in the budget applying inheritance tax to bigger farms will result in families who have been farming the same land for generations having to sell up to pay the inheritance tax bill. The government claims most proper farmers won’t be affected, and that it is entirely right to close a loophole that increasingly is being exploited by very rich people who do not have a clue how to drive a tractor but who want to pass on vast wealth to their children tax free.
Helena Horton has written a good explainer testing the arguments on both sides.
Steve Reed, the environment minister, has defended the tax changes. This morning he posted this on social media.
Half of farmland sold last year went to non-farmers including wealthy individuals trying to avoid inheritance tax.
It’s right that tax changes will ensure everyone pays their fair share - and young farmers can realise their dream of buying their own farm.
And the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been publicising this joint statement from Reed and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor.
But Tom Bradshaw, president of the NFU, says that farmers would keep going until they got the government to change its mind. He told Sky News this morning.
[Protests] will carry on. They cannot have a policy in place which has such disastrous human impacts and think we’re going to go quiet.
We don’t know what’s next, but I know the membership have never been so united in trying to overturn something in the time that I’ve been farming.
Asked if farmers could carry on until the government backed down, Bradshaw replied: “Absolutely.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: The National Farmers Union holds a rally at Church House in Westminster.
11am: Farmers hold a separate protest in Whitehall.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
11.45am: Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, gives a speech on policing reform at the National Police Chiefs’ Council conference.
Late morning (UK time): Keir Starmer is doing interviews with broadcasters at the G20 summit in Brazil.
2.30pm: Steve Reed, the environment secretary, gives evidence to the environment committee about the work of his department.
5pm (UK time): Starmer holds a press conference in Brazil.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X because the site has become too awful. But individual Guardian journalists are still there, I have still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary. I was trying Threads for a bit, but I am stepping back from that because it’s not a good platform for political news.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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