Greg Smith warns Labour poses a danger to family-run farms

Labour’s inheritance tax plans would be a disaster for family-run farms in Britain, a small rural business owner and a Conservative candidate fear.

Environment Secretary Steve Barclay has warned Labour is plotting to secretly unleash a bombshell £1billion inheritance tax raid on farmers.

Labour branded the claims “desperate nonsense” but refused to rule out scrapping inheritance tax relief for farmland when approached by the Daily Express.

And now Greg Smith, Conservative candidate for the new Mid Buckinghamshire constituency, has warned that if Sir Keir Starmer removed the inheritance tax lifeline it would “kill” family businesses in the UK.

Speaking to the Daily Express from a family-run diversified farm near the town of Princes Risborough, he said: “If we do get a Labour government and they do remove the inheritance tax relief, virtually every family-run farm in this country will die.

“Because there is no way those smaller farms could survive if they were forced to sell off chunks of land to meet an inheritance tax bill.

“And that is where Labour are totally blind to the realities of rural communities and frankly dangerous.”

Family-run farms “absolutely” had to have a future in the UK but the “looming threat of a Labour government” was putting this into doubt, Mr Smith told us.

He said: “If they remove inheritance tax relief for farmers that would kill all of them.

“If we want a future for family farming, that cannot be allowed to happen because when those farms are handed down so much of them would have to be sold off to pay the inheritance tax bill they just would not be viable.

“If people want to protect our countryside and food security, then we cannot have a Labour government.”

Earlier this month, the Environment Secretary warned Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves would be forced to scrap the tax lifeline for farmland to plug a £35billion “black hole” from unfunded spending commitments.

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Agricultural property relief, which allows landowners to pass down farms to their children for free, currently protects farmers from paying inheritance tax on their farmland.

Removing this lifeline would saddle the average UK farm with an eye-watering £600,000 bill, which could be potentially devastating for farms and result in their closure, the Tories cautioned.

They made the calculation based on the average farm having a land value of about £2million.

The Conservative manifesto commits to including a family business tax guarantee, pledging to retain inheritance tax reliefs for family farms to ensure they can be passed down without tax burdens.

Labour is yet to rule out scrapping the inheritance tax relief but has not confirmed that it will.

Rural communities were poorly understood by policymakers and the machinery of government, Mr Smith argued.

He said: “Too often the mandarins of government have never lived in the countryside and do not understand the needs of those living in rural areas.”

He cited many people living in his constituency having an oil tank in their gardens instead of being hooked up to the main gas network as an example of where policy needs of rural Britons were disregarded.

He said: “When energy support packages came along and people in London, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham were designing them.

“It was almost beyond their comprehension that people would heat their homes using an oil tank in their gardens.

“So when you think about rural you have got to think differently in so many ways because the challenges facing rural communities are different to urban ones.”

“When people think of rural communities they think of farming nice country walks but they do not consider the practicalities and the challenges of the issues people face here.”

A Labour spokesperson said: “This is yet more desperate nonsense from the Conservative Party.

“Our farmers have been abandoned by this Conservative government. They have been undercut by poorly negotiated trade deals, locked behind unnecessary trade barriers blocking the export of high-quality produce and face skyrocketing energy prices forcing thousands out of business.

“It’s time for change - but change will only come if you vote for it. Labour will introduce a new deal for farmers to turbocharge rural growth and boost Britain's food security. We will cut energy bills for farmers by switching on GB Energy, reduce red tape in farming schemes and protect farmers from being undercut in trade deals.”