Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party suffered a humiliating defeat in a council by-election close to Jeremy Clarkson’s home as fury mounted over the farming tax fiasco.
The party’s vote collapsed by a staggering 33.8%, allowing the Liberal Democrats to swoop in and gain the Chipping Norton seat from Labour on West Oxfordshire District Council.
Insiders believe voters abandoned Labour over the Government’s “family farm tax”. Clarkson has been a vocal critic of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision.
A Tory source said: “The Lib Dems didn’t seem to campaign that much from what we’ve seen and just took advantage of Labour supporters’ frustrations I suspect.
“It’s definitely blowback over recent decisions.
“Labour are normally very well organised and do well there.”
A Liberal Democrat source said: “This stunning win is another sign of the growing rural revolt over the Government’s family farm tax.
“It’s clear that in rural communities like these people are turning to the Liberal Democrats, not the tarnished Conservatives, as the party best placed to hold the Government to account.”
Ms Reeves announced in the Budget that the 100% relief for family farms would be limited to only the first £1million of combined agricultural and business property.
For anything above that, landowners will pay a 20% tax rate, rather than the standard 40% rate of inheritance tax (IHT) applied to other land and property.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed was yesterday forced to defend the Government’s “crystal clear” figures on the number of farmers impacted by rises in inheritance tax.
He remained adamant that “three quarters of farmers will pay nothing” because of changes announced as he faced questions from the Conservatives about whether the figures had been “checked before the Budget”.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has disputed the Government’s claims about the number of farms that will be impacted, warning that plans to roll together allowances for both IHT relief and business property relief could leave far more agricultural businesses exposed to the tax.
Up to 20,000 demonstrators have been warned they face arrest if they use vehicles to block roads in central London next Tuesday.
Clarkson warned the changes are “killing farming”, while fellow TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp accused Ms Reeves of “destroying” the chance for farmers to pass down their farms to their children.
The former Top Gear and Grand Tour host said the changes “could be the last straw for farmers who are already struggling to cope”.
The presenter of Clarkson’s Farm wrote of Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in The Sunday Times: “If the word on the rural grapevine about a farmer’s suicide is accurate, their policy, born of bitterness and envy, may already have tipped one man over the edge.”
