Shropshire MPs Column - the latest from the county's representatives in Westminster

“We’re a party that’s fit to serve… and that seeks a new relationship with the countryside and farming communities on this basis. A relationship based on respect and on genuine partnership.”

Those were the words of Sir Keir Starmer, then Leader of the Opposition, to the National Farmers’ Union annual conference in 2023.

Before the general election, Labour described claims they would charge Inheritance Tax on family farms as “desperate nonsense”.

That has turned out to be yet another Labour broken promise - some call it worse.

For four decades, Inheritance Tax has not been charged on family farms to allow them to be passed down - fully intact - from one generation to the next, helping to keep farming and the rural way of life alive. So why is that important?

If each generation of farmers is forced to sell off land to settle an Inheritance Tax bill, before long most family farms will become too small to farm efficiently, which, over time, would make them disappear.

Labour’s new Family Farm Tax has rightly stirred large protests by farmers. Despite the huge opposition, the Government still doesn’t seem to understand the likely impact of its policy. It is yet another policy driven by ideology rather than by what’s good for Britain.

The Chancellor thinks 28 per cent of farms will pay the new tax, but the NFU says the real figure is 66 per cent. While the Treasury says 500 family farms will be affected each year, the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers estimates that 75,000 family farms could be affected over the next generation. I believe the National Farmers’ Union, not the Labour Party.

Why has the Government found itself in this mess?

The new Family Farm Tax is the product of a Chancellor and a Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who know little about rural life. Attempting to defend Labour’s position in a recent parliamentary debate was another urban-minded Treasury Minister. Labour have never understood rural counties like Shropshire and they don’t understand how farming works.

The owner of a small family farm in The Wrekin constituency recently contacted me to explain how Labour’s plans would land them with an Inheritance Tax bill of nearly £250,000 which, based on their annual profits, would take 19 years to pay off.

At her first session of Prime Minister’s Questions as Leader of the Opposition, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch confirmed the Conservatives would “reverse Labour’s cruel family farms tax”. I completely support that position.  Pressure is building on the Government to change its flawed policy. I will continue to stand up for Shropshire’s family farms.

At the NFU Conference in 2023, Sir Keir Starmer promised a “fairer, greener, more dynamic future for British farming”. Unless the Government has the good sense to change course, they will have, in one Budget, helped to dismantle Britain’s family farms.