Sir Keir Starmer has made a U-turn on farmers inheritance tax after the government “declared a war on the countryside.”
Last year Rachel Reeves announced that farmer will be charged 20% on agricultural assets valued at more than £1 million from April 2026, this sparked mayhem.
After more than a year of protests by farmers and campaign groups Labour has said it is now changing the plan to raise the threshold from £1 million to £2.5 million.
Tory shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said Starmer’s U-turn is “too little, too late.”
She wrote on X, “At long last, Labour has snuck out a partial U-turn on their vindictive Family Farm Tax. It is too late for some, however. Businesses and lives have been lost. Rural communities will not forget the distress, pain and panic this government has caused them.”
Environment secretary Emma Reynolds said, ”Farmers are at the heart of our food security and environmental stewardship, and I am determined to work with them to secure a profitable future for British farming.
“We have listened closely to farmers across the country and we are making changes today to protect more ordinary family farms.
“We are increasing the individual threshold from £1m to £2.5m which means couples with estates of up to £5m will now pay no inheritance tax on their estates.
“It’s only right that larger estates contribute more, while we back the farms and trading businesses that are the backbone of Britain’s rural communities.”
campaign group No Farmers, No Food said, “Huge news for family farmers. The Labour government have finally u-turned on the inheritance tax on family farms. They have announced that the threshold is rising to £2.5 million. It’s still not enough, but it’s still a huge victory for everyone who has relentlessly campaigned on this.”
National Farmers Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw said: “After months of NFU campaigning, the government has today announced changes to the threshold for inheritance tax for family farms. These changes mark a huge victory for British farmers.”
Mo Metcalf-fisher, director of external affairs for the Countryside Alliance, said: “The government has finally addressed some of the appalling unfairness of its original proposal on inheritance tax on agricultural property, but it has caused months of unnecessary pain and anxiety.
“Whether it will learn the fundamental lesson of this policy debacle, which is that it needs to work with the rural community, not legislate against it, remains to be seen. The government has a long way to go to rebuild trust”.
