Fresh tractor tax blow for Starmer as Labour could lose three quarters of rural seats, poll suggests

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. Sir Keir Starmer’s controversial tractor tax and other policies in Rachel Reeves’ October Budget could see the party hold onto just one in four of the seats Labour won in rural areas in July, according to a new survey. open image in gallery Sir Keir Starmer has been branded the ‘farmer harmer’ The poll also suggested Labour might hold onto just 11 of the 39 rural seats it holds. “But more broadly, many rural voters left the Conservative Party and voted Labour for the first time because they felt the Conservatives had become a party that could no longer be trusted to deliver on their promises – in the year ahead, Labour will have to show these voters that they can be trusted, in order to halt the growing perception that our new government simply offers more of the same.” open image in gallery NFU president Tom Bradshaw has rallied against the tax changes One rural Labour MP forecast to lose their seat by the poll said it "seems a bit far-fetched four years before an election. They added: “There is still time for this government to do the right thing and reassess before irrevocable damage is done to our farming sector, our food security, and the wider rural communities farming supports.” And Mo Metcalf-Fisher, director of external affairs at the Countryside Alliance, told The Independent: “Prior to the election, Labour had built up a fair amount of goodwill in the countryside, but that appears to have rapidly evaporated, not least as a result of the ongoing family farm tax row and the entirely avoidable fallout from that.