Keir Starmer today moved to water down Labour’s hated inheritance tax raid on farmers amid widespread rural anger.
Under the original plan unveiled by Rachel Reeves in the 2024 Budget farmers faced paying IHT at a 20 per cent rate on agricultural property and land worth more than £1million from April.
It triggered a huge wave of protests in London and a backlash from Labour MPs in rural seats.
But Defra today lifted that threshold to £2.5million, admitting that it had acted after it ‘listened to concerns of the farming community’.
It comes exactly a week after Sir Keir said that the reforms in their original form were ‘sensible’.
A Defra spokesman said the change would halve the number of farms affected by the change to Agricultural Property Relief.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: ‘I am thankful common sense has prevailed and government has listened.
‘From the start the government said it was trying to protect the family farm and the change announced today brings this much closer to reality for many.’
But it is unlikely to remove the clamour for the tax raid to be scrapped completely.
Under the original plan unveiled by Rachel Reeves in the 2024 Budget farmers faced paying IHT at a 20 per cent rate on agricultural property and land worth more than £1million from April.
