Farmers rejoice as Starmer caves in on inheritance tax

Threshold raised to £2.5m after a year of intense pressure

- ALEX ROSS DAVID MADDOX

Farmers across the country are celebrating after Sir Keir Starmer caved in following months of pressure from farmers and watered down plans to tax inherited farmland.

Under the plans, announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves last year, farmers were to be charged 20 per cent on agricultural assets above £1m from April 2026. This triggered a storm of fury, with fears that family-run farms would be worst affected. But yesterday, Labour said it was raising the threshold from £1m to £2.5m, meaning that most farms would not have to pay it.

The climbdown comes after crunch talks last week between National Farmers' Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw and the prime minister, The Independent understands, following a year of protests about the measures.

Gareth Wyn Jones, a farmer from North Wales who was one of the leaders of the protests against the tax, told The Independent the announcement was “great news”, while former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who has also been very critical of the policy, welcomed the climbdown.

Meanwhile, a farmer whose father killed himself the day before last October's Budget amid worries over the inheritance tax changes said the government's climbdown was “the best Christmas present for a lot of farmers”, but he accused ministers of demonstrating “a complete lack of understanding and compassion” in relation to rural communities.

Jonathan Charlesworth, who found his father John Philip Charlesworth dead in a barn on their farm in Silkstone, Barnsley, said: “It’s a welcome U-turn that won’t bring back the lives lost over the last year or so due to the anxiety caused, but will hopefully prevent a flood of suicides running up to the commencement in April.”