Politicians are being “distracted” from fundamental issues facing farmers because of the focus on changes to inheritance tax, a Labour MP has suggested.
Sadik Al-Hassan said he was growing increasingly concerned that issues regarding the future of farming are not being addressed.
This comes as farmers gathered outside the Houses of Parliament on Thursday in a bid to maintain pressure on the Government to reverse the decision to impose 20% inheritance tax on agricultural property and land worth more than £1 million.
Mr Al-Hassan told the Commons: “The farmers of North Somerset have not shied away from expressing to me their wide range of concerns going far beyond merely changes to the inheritance tax regime.
“And from those meetings, I’ve grown increasingly concerned that the outcry over changes to inheritance tax here in this House, and subsequent time given to the topic, have distracted us from the more fundamental questions regarding the future of farming.”
During a farming debate, Mr Al-Hassan went on to describe the “excessive power of supermarkets in contract negotiations and the raw deal farmers get as a consequence”.
He said some farmers had seen “perfectly edible crops rejected due to minor aesthetic defects, excessive delays in payment” and “entirely arbitrary cancellation of orders with no reason given”.
He added: “The fear of retaliation keeps many of these instances from seeing the light of day, a fear that has arisen due to the oligopic nature of the supermarket industry.
“In the flow from farm to fork, the supermarkets act as a great gatekeeper, siphoning a cut from the passing traffic.”
Conservative former minister John Glen (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Conservative former minister John Glen said the impact of changes to inheritance tax on farmers has been “catastrophic”.
The Salisbury MP said: “The universal feedback that we’ve had from farmers has been that since this Government have come in they are very, very disappointed with what has happened.
“The changes to the APR (agricultural property relief) and BPR (business property relief) have catastrophic implications for succession planning, and despite making really, I think, sensible suggestions, the NFU (National Farmers’ Union) have been completely rebuffed.
“And I think farmers are in absolute despair and that’s before we had all the changes to national insurance, to the national living wage and the overall context for operating small businesses, which is what farms are, has been transformed.”
He referred to the abrupt closure this week of the sustainable farming incentive (SFI), which pays farmers in England for “public goods” such as insecticide-free farming, wildflower strips and managing ponds and hedgerows, after it was fully allocated for this year.
He said: “A number of farmers rang me up and said ‘this is the end, what are we going to do?’”
Mr Glen continued: “The combined effect of those changes in the budget and what was announced last night have had a massive impact across the industry, across the United Kingdom.”
Conservative shadow environment, food and rural affairs secretary Victoria Atkins suggested it was the Government which had misplaced its focus, prioritising “how to carry a chicken” over taxes and incentives.
“In just a few short months, this city-dwelling Government has destroyed families’ ambitions for the future, put at risk generations of expertise and custodianship, and less than 48 hours ago, ripped the rug out from business cases immediately,” Ms Atkins told the Commons.
She referred to a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) open consultation on poultry catching and handling, which proposes clarifying the law so that farmers can catch chickens by two legs, in line with welfare guidance.
“I can reveal what the Secretary of State (Steve Reed) and the farming minister (Daniel Zeichner) have been prioritising this week,” the Conservative MP said.
“They’ve issued a consultation not on SFI, not on the family farm tax, not on cuts to delinked payments, but on how to carry a chicken.
“I’m sure everybody thinks that really is the national priority for farming at the moment.”
Elsewhere in the debate, DUP MP Jim Shannon asked Mr Zeichner: “Do you want to be the farmers’ friend?”
In response to the MP for Strangford, Mr Zeichner could be heard saying: “I am the farmers’ friend.”
Mr Shannon then said: “When (the minister) approaches the Chancellor (Rachel Reeves) and persuades the Chancellor to increase the threshold from £1 to £5 million, you’ll be my friend forever, you’ll be the friend of all the farmers in my constituency.”
Mr Zeichner in his speech told MPs that the Government is “committed to making farming more profitable”, and that this would “underpin” a 25-year farming road-map and food strategy.
He said: “Food security is national security and our commitment to farmers is absolutely steadfast.
“It’s the hard work of the UK’s farmers that puts food on our tables and stewards our beautiful countryside, but as we all know, the sector is facing high costs and tight margins.”