Despite Labour’s claims to be on the side of working people, their decision to clobber farmers with inheritance tax is going to push up prices in the supermarket.
I have already spoken about the damage that other parts of Labour’s Budget, and the decisions they’ve made since coming into Government, will inflict on parts of our society. It’s fair to say that Labour will preside over the death of British farming.
Don’t take my word for it. Tom Bradshaw, President of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), has said that “This budget not only threatens family farms but will also make producing food more expensive”. Farmers have threatened to protest in London next week, evoking grim memories of the farming protests in France in recent years.
The response from the Labour Party could be described as insensitive at best. The Government has tried to claim that its changes will only impact a small number of farms. But the Country Land and Business Association estimates that Labour’s decision could harm 70,000 family farms. Labour’s Environment Secretary dismissed criticisms of the changes, saying that British farmers will simply “have to do more with less”. A Labour strategist who previously worked for Tony Blair called farming “an industry we could do without.” As though people can live without food…
As with so many policies unleashed on the country by Labour since July, hiking tax on farmers wasn’t included in their election manifesto. Indeed, as recently as December last year, the man who is now Environment Secretary said Labour had no plans to charge inheritance tax on farms.
Some people might question why it matters that farmers are being hit with higher taxes. But the knock-on effect will impact on all of us.
There are few people who work harder than farmers. Up while many of us are still sleeping, out in all weathers, and few days off if any at all. And for many the reward is a slender profit.
This extra tax, for so many farms, is something they simply can’t afford. Farmers will sell up, most likely to developers.
This will mean the country is more dependent on importing food from abroad. Many people prefer to buy British – not out of a sense of nationalism but to reduce their carbon footprint, support the rural economy and ensure their food has come from places with some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. People want to know where their food comes from. Instead, consumers will have to buy more imported food produced somewhere with questionable or even unknown standards. Produce will have to travel greater distances and create more carbon emissions. It will also mean less food security – our food supplies impacted by wars and global supply issues.
I know many people care about the countryside. Farms form a vital part of a large number of local communities, including here in Wokingham Borough. And they are a piece of the patchwork image of what we think of when we picture Britain. Villages will see farms with ties going back hundreds of years in some cases, vanish. A whole generation of children won’t know what it means to pick your own fruit and vegetables. We will no longer see animals grazing in fields. Miles of fields will disappear beneath the latest housing estate thrown up by a developer with no interest in delivering homes that are in the right places.
The Conservative Party stands with farmers and rural communities against this tax hike. I would urge you to make your voice heard to the Labour Government, that farmers, and the people buying the food they produce, want to axe the Family Farm Tax.
Pauline Jorgen is the leader of Wokingham Conservatives
