A historic clip of Sir Keir Starmer telling British farmers ‘You deserve better’ has been unearthed on social media, prompting widespread accusations of hypocrisy.
Speaking to the 2023 National Farmers’ Union conference, the then Leader of the Opposition said: “Everyday seems to bring a new existential risk to British farming.
“Losing a farm is not like losing any other business, it can’t come back.
“That’s why the lack of urgency from the government, the lack of attention to detail, the lack of long-term planning, it’s not on.
“You deserve better than that.”
However, this week Starmer’s Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced plans to cap farmers’ inheritance tax relief at £1million, meaning thousands of farmers won’t be able to leave their farms to their children without incurring a huge tax bill.
Asset-rich but cash-poor farms have little to no scope to pay inheritance tax bills from farm income, meaning a sale of land and machinery would have to be made to cover the bill.
Government statistics show 17 per cent of UK farms failed to make a profit in 2022/23, while 59 per cent made a profit of less than £50,000.
As a result, thousands of small family farms would be broken up to the point they are no longer viable, damaging the fabric of British countryside and worsening the UK’s food security.
Young farmers set to inherit their parents’ farms will no longer be able to do so, ending many farming dynasties who have often been custodians of ‘their’ patch of countryside for hundreds of years.
The decision has been labelled “nothing short of a betrayal”, “the final straw” and a “dark day for farming”, while many farmers have been left wondering what they’ve been working seven days a week all their lives for, if not to leave their farms to their children.
For many angry farmers, the clip of Sir Keir Starmer sympathising with them last year has caused outrage.
One commented: “It’s hard to quantify the level of deceit in this interview. The existential risk clearly was the Government.”
Another wrote: “Sadly there are people who believe individuals should not own assets such as land.
“All this will do is hasten the decline of family farms and drive them into ownership by the big farming companies.”
Many others warned the land that will be sold to foot IHT bills will be bought either by megafarms or large companies with zero interest in farming and producing food but see the potential for tree planting, solar farms and other environmental projects to offset their carbon emissions.