Sir Keir Starmer claimed his “first job was on a farm” as protests erupted in London today about inheritance tax changes.
Farming assets worth more than £1 million, which were previously exempt, will be liable to 20 percent inheritance tax as of April 2025, a move which farmers say could leave many penniless.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Starmer responded to comments from Countryside Alliance president Baroness Mallalieu, who questioned whether Labour is too urban to “get” the countryside.
Starmer commented: “My first job was on a farm. I grew up in the countryside, all of my entire family lives in the countryside, we’re a rural family. I’m the only one who lives in a city. I do get it.
“That’s why I am able to say with confidence that that threshold for a typical case of £3 million is a very high threshold and therefore the vast majority of farms will be unaffected.”
The Metropolitan Police estimated more than 10,000 people protested in London on November 19 over the changes to inheritance tax. Presenter Jeremy Clarkson said “it’s the end” for farmers.
Many farmers argue while they are asset-rich in property and livestock, they are cash-poor, meaning the tax changes could force them to sell up, threatening the future of the UK’s agricultural industry.
National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw told Sky News: “We’d love to pay more tax. If we get proper margins from food production, and we end up swelling the Treasury coffers, bring it on.
“But at the moment the supply chain doesn’t give us those returns that enable us to save the money to pay the inheritance tax that this government now wants to take.”
Allowances could mean a couple who are married or in a civil partnership could pass on a farm worth as much as £3m.
Starmer also spoke about services in rural communities: “I also do know it matters to rural communities that we are investing in their NHS. They rely it just as much as anybody in a town or city.
“It matters that their schools are fit for their children and it matters hugely that there’s enough housing for them and their family so it’s affordable in rural areas.”
