The boss of Iceland has hit out at Rachel Reeves’s farm tax after supporting Labour at the election.
Richard Walker OBE, chief of the supermarket chain founded by Sir Malcolm Walker in 1970, has said the Chancellor has parked her tractor in the wrong place.
Ms Reeves announced in her Budget on October 30 that, from April 2026, inheritance tax relief for business and agricultural assets would be capped at £1 million, with a new reduced rate of 20% being charged above that.
Farmers have criticised the policy, claiming that the levy will force the sale of lands that have belonged to the same families for generations.
Agricultural workers have protested multiple times in Whitehall to persuade the Chancellor to change course.
Mr Walker has told the Telegraph: “The Treasury is right to look at levelling the playing field on tax, but it has parked its tractor in the wrong place going after hard-working British farmers.
“Let’s stop messing around and make online sales tax reform the priority.”
The food retailer Titan added: “High streets and farmers are the bedrock of this great country; we need to get behind them.”
But it has been pointed out that Mr Walker supported Labour at the General Election in July.
The Tory shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake MP wrote on X yesterday: “Perhaps he shouldn’t have urged voters to ‘get behind’ Labour.”
Writing in The Guardian in January 2024, Mr Walker said: “Labour is the right choice for the communities across the country where Iceland operates – and the right choice for everyone in business who wants to see this country grow and prosper.
“Having met the man, I am sure that Starmer has exactly what it takes to be a great leader.
“Indeed, he has already demonstrated this in the way in which he has transformed his own party by ruthlessly excising the Corbynite extremism that made Labour unelectable in 2019.”