The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is set to put pressure on Parliament over the government’s change to inheritance tax.
On Tuesday, the NFU will lead 1,800 members for a mass lobby on MPs, calling for the plans to introduce 20 percent inheritance tax on farms worth over £1 million to be scrapped.
The union said in a statement published last week that its farmer and grower members will be meeting with their MPs “to bring to life the impacts of this policy change on their farms, on British farming and on food supply, and to urge them to ask the Chancellor to reconsider these measures.”
“There must be a political price to pay for this decision. This mass lobby is about landing that message as we work to have this decision reversed,” the statement said.
Separately, farmers will take part in a protest, starting at Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, where those in attendance will hear from farming leaders and celebrities. The procession to Parliament Square will be led by children on toy tractors, symbolic of how the plans could impact future generations of farming.
Starmer Defends Plans
The government has defended the changes, saying that only a small number will be affected—around 500 a year—and that there are mechanisms in place that will mean farmers can pass on more before paying taxes.
Prime Minister Sir Starmer said on Sunday that he was “absolutely confident” that the “vast majority of farms and farmers” would not be affected.
Speaking on his way to the G20 summit in Brazil, Starmer said, “I think it is very important that we support farmers. That’s why we’ve put £5 billion in the Budget for the next two years into farming.”
Starmed added: “Obviously, there’s an issue around inheritance tax and I do understand the concern.
“But for a typical case, which is parents with a farm they want to pass on to one of their children, by the time you’ve taken into account not only the exemption for the farm property itself, but also the exemption for spouse to spouse, then parent to child, it’s £3 million before any inheritance tax will be payable.”
Northern Ireland Pressures Treasury
The demonstration and lobbying in London is not the only event taking place in the UK where farmers will airing their concerns.Farmers in Northern Ireland are set to take part in an Ulster Farmers’ Union rally in Lisburn, County Antrim, on Monday evening.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Carla Lockhart said that the changes will affect at least one-third of all farms in Northern Ireland and 75 percent of dairy farms. She warned that the new tax could threaten the generational transfer of agricultural land.
Lockhart and the country’s other sitting MPs and peers co-signed a letter addressed to the Treasury, Starmer, and Defra minister Daniel Zeichner in which they plea for the government to drop the plans.
Lockhart wrote in the letter, “Unlike other types of businesses, farming is asset-rich but often cash-poor, making inheritance tax liabilities particularly difficult to meet without significant restructuring, borrowing, or asset disposal, potentially leading to fragmentation or loss of productive land.”
“The removal of Agricultural Property Relief will place a substantial and unfair financial burden on family farms, jeopardise their ability to pass on these assets to future generations and risk the sustainability of family-owned farming operations,” the DUP MP said.
In response, a government spokesperson reiterated the administration’s position that the majority of those claiming relief will not be affected by the changes.
“This is a fair and balanced approach that protects the family farm while also fixing the public services that we all rely on,” the spokesperson said.
