Starmer warned over ‘militant’ backlash by farmers over inheritance ‘tractor tax’

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Ministers have been warned that they face a “militant” backlash from farmers over the so-called tractor tax of imposing inheritance death duties on family farms worth more than £1m. open image in gallery Environment secretary Steve Reed met farmers to discuss the government’s plans “How they can have that wide a discrepancy within government is quite unbelievable.” He said he had been receiving calls from people in their middle age who have been running successful businesses, but whose parents were still in the family house and partners in the business, and might not live for seven years, which is the minimum time after a transfer of assets for inheritance tax not to apply. “Now we are not encouraging that in any way shape or form, but government need to understand that there is a real strength of feeling behind what this change means for the future of family farming in this country.” open image in gallery Chancellor Rachel Reeves said it is not ‘affordable’ to keep the current system of inheritance tax Bizza Walters, 26, a freelance presenter and fourth generation farmer from Warwickshire, said there is “no way” her family could afford the tax bill if her father and uncles passed down their 500-acre farm to her and her cousins. “I don’t think it is affordable to carry on with a relief like that when our public finances are under so much pressure.” But the NFU said that many family farms have a high notional asset value, but very low income and liquidity, which means that the vast majority of owners would be unable to meet the inheritance tax charges, without selling assets.