The head of the farmers’ union has accused UK ministers of betraying the agricultural industry with changes to inheritance tax before a protest in Westminster.
Tom Bradshaw, the president of the NFU, told Sky News that the environment secretary, Steve Reed, promised a year ago that a future Labour government would not change the relief on inheritance tax for farmers.
“This industry has been betrayed,” Bradshaw said. “They said they wouldn’t make this change, and suddenly they’ve gone ahead and done it. There’s a whole generation that have … been betrayed.”
Previously, farming businesses qualified for 100% relief on inheritance tax on agricultural property and business property. But now the tax is being imposed on farms worth more than £1m, with an effective tax rate of 20% on assets above that threshold, rather than the normal 40% rate for inheritance tax.
Ministers say the actual threshold before paying inheritance tax could be as much as £3m, once exemptions for each partner in a couple and for the farm property are taken into account.
According to the Treasury, 27% of estates claiming agricultural property relief (APR) were above the £1m threshold in 2021-22, suggesting that nearly three-quarters of farms would not fall within the scope of the charges. The NFU disputes this claim.
Thousands of farmers are expected to protest against the proposals in London on Tuesday.
“The policy they’ve designed is very, very poorly thought through,” Bradshaw said. “The foundations of the numbers behind it are questionable. Even Defra and the Treasury can’t agree on them.
“When we look at the human impact of this policy, they’ve designed a policy which has got the elderly generation in the twilight of their careers, absolutely in the centre of this policy, with no way to plan for it. They’ve given everything to this country to produce the food the country needs, and they can’t plan their way through it. That is simply unacceptable.”
Bradshaw said the NFU did not support food blockading but understood why farmers were so angry.
The host of Clarkson’s Farm, Jeremy Clarkson, is also due to speak at the rally on Tuesday. He wrote in the Sun: “I will be there, despite having letters from doctors telling me not to go on the march and saying I must avoid stress.”
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Clarkson told the Times in 2021 that avoiding inheritance tax was the “critical” factor in deciding to buy his Cotswolds farm.
On Monday night, Bradshaw told Newsnight it was “probably not helpful” for Clarkson to turn up to the protest. The former Top Gear presenter has been used as an example of a wealthy person who was not previously a farmer but bought land to avoid tax – the kind of person intended to be caught by the changes.
Earlier on Sky News, the policing minister, Diana Johnson, said she did not expect food shortages in the runup to Christmas.
“Issues around food security are obviously national security issues,” she said. “There are plans in place, there are contingencies always in place to deal with that, but I’m confident that won’t happen.”