Starmer warned of wipeout of rural MPs over farms tax

Farmers set to march on London to protest inheritance issue

- ALEX ROSS ALICJA HAGOPIAN

Labour faces a wipeout of rural MPs, Sir Keir Starmer has been warned, as tens of thousands of farmers prepare to march on London today in protest over the government's Budget changes to inheritance tax.

The party’s landslide election victory saw Labour MPs elected across 114 rural constituencies. But Labour peer Baroness Ann Mallalieu has told The Independent that chancellor Rachel Reeves’s measure to abolish inheritance tax exemptions for some farms has caused uproar, with her party facing angry claims of betrayal among farmers and rural campaigners.

Farmers arriving to join the first major protest against the new Labour government say the 20 per cent levy on farming assets worth more than £1m will rip the heart from countryside communities. And they strongly dispute Treasury figures that suggest just 28 per cent of farms will be impacted.

Some of the farming community’s anger has been vented at newly elected Labour MPs – with none so far speaking out in support of farmers’ calls to reverse the inheritance tax measure.

Latest public opinion polls demonstrate support for farmers. A survey by More in Common showed 57 per cent of people supported making farmers exempt from inheritance tax, including 45 per cent of Labour voters, while 44 per cent said the Budget had a negative impact on farmers.

Baroness Mallalieu, who is also president of the Countryside Alliance, told The Independent: “Under Tony Blair there were 100 rural Labour MPs. Tony Blair mounted, and very much regrets it now as he says, what was seen as an attack on the countryside, and it dropped to 17. It took 14 years of Conservative governance before it was restored to 100 – now [it is] such a pity to throw that away, which it seems to me they are bent on doing.”