Farms at risk but Labour plough on in benefits fiasco

LABOUR are waging war on the countryside.

- By Victoria Atkins

Protest over government's inheritance taxes which threaten the future of Britain's farms.

(Picture: JACOB KING/PA)

As Rachel Reeves was announcing higher taxes to pay for higher benefits in her Budget of broken promises last month, farmers were in Whitehall protesting, again, against Labour's disastrous farming policies.The family farm and family business taxes, which will make it impossible for many farmers and small firms to pass on their farms and businesses to their children, spell disaster for our rural communities and risk raising food prices even higher. By imposing inheritance tax on asset-rich but cash-poor families, Labour will force farmers to sell the farms passed down by their parents and grandparents simply to pay the government's benefits bill. These families face losing their way of life, their homes and their futures.

With this hapless government so prone to U-turns, you might have expected a retreat from this awful policy, given the reasoned and well-argued opposition from farmers and Conservatives.

But no - Labour suspended one of their MPs last week for voting against this vindictive tax. Dozens of Labour MPs abstained but their front bench is not listening.