A Labour peer has warned Keir Starmer he risks “turning the countryside into a no-go zone” for the party with its attack on farmers.
Baroness Ann Mallalieu, president of the Countryside Alliance, suggested Rachel Reeves’ Budget risks “alienating Labour in the countryside”. Some 190 Labour MPs hold seats with at least some part of them being rural, an analysis by her group showed.
Baroness Mallalieu said: “It would be foolish to underestimate the overwhelming public support for our farmers.
“They are part of the national fabric. The recent Budget and the subsequent fall out since then- which has only worsened- risks alienating Labour in the countryside and undoing a huge amount of good work in the years building up to the General Election by Keir Starmer and others. We have been here before as a party and we now risk turning the countryside into a no-go zone for Labour again.
“This would be a disaster and action must be taken to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Focus must be on mending the relationship between the Government and farmers and for Whitehall to be seen as doing things for the countryside, rather than just to it.
“Farmers are not going to give up and a long, bitter battle between them and the Government is an incredibly bad look for our party which may once again haunt us for a generation.”
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Nearly 200 of Keir Starmer’s MPs are in seats that include rural areas (Image: Getty)
Several Labour MPs have urged the Government to pause its inheritance tax raid on farmers. Some of Sir Keir’s furious MPs in rural seats formed the Labour Rural Growth Group just before Christmas, the Express understands.
The paper has been told that it was created because individual MPs, especially newer ones, were worried of approaching the Chancellor alone.
The Chancellor in October announced that from April 2026, combined agricultural and business property assets up to £1 million will still receive 100% relief but anything above that will be taxed at an effective rate of 20%.
The Daily Express’s Save Britain’s Family Farms crusade has demanded a U-turn. Tonia Antoniazzi, Labour MP for Gower, said publicly last week she supported he National Farmers Union’s call for a pause on the government’s proposed changes to inheritance tax.
She added: “We need time to gather information to determine the full impact the changes will have to family farms in Wales.”
Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate, David Smith MP asked whether “the relief element of the policy could be recalibrated”.
While Julia Buckley MP (Shrewsbury) asked for “a temporary transitional extension to the taper” so that older farmers could pass assets to the next generation. Labour has been contacted for comment.
Labour has been contacted for comment.
A Government spokeswoman said: “Our commitment to farmers remains steadfast.
“This Government will invest £5 billion into farming over the next two years, the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history. We are going further with reforms to boost profits for farmers by backing British produce and reforming planning rules on farms to support food production.
“Our reform to Agricultural and Business Property Reliefs will mean farmers will pay a reduced inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40% for other businesses, and payments can be spread over 10 years, interest-free. This is a fair and balanced approach, which fixes the public services we all rely on, affecting around 500 estates a year.”
Full list of 190 Labour seats at risk because of Keir Starmer’s attack on the countryside
- Oldham East and Saddleworth
- North Durham
- Weston-super-Mare
- Lothian East
- North Somerset
- Runcorn and Helsby
- Buckingham and Bletchley
- Gower
- Lowestoft
- Reading West and Mid Berkshire
- St Helens North
- Glenrothes and Mid Fife
- Corby and East Northamptonshire
- Paisley and Renfrewshire South
- Forest of Dean
- Redditch
- Hartlepool
- Ossett and Denby Dale
- Worthing West
- Mid Derbyshire
- Rhondda and Ogmore
- Shrewsbury
- Hertford and Stortford
- North Ayrshire and Arran
- Chester North and Neston
- Penrith and Solway
- North West Cambridgeshire
- York Outer
- Nuneaton
- Burton and Uttoxeter
- Morecambe and Lunesdale
- North East Derbyshire
- Rossendale and Darwen
- Na h-Eileanan an Iar
- Milton Keynes North
- Scunthorpe
- West Lancashire
- Colne Valley
- Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard
- Pontypridd
- West Dunbartonshire
- Shipley
- Hastings and Rye
- Dunfermline and Dollar
- Rochester and Strood
- Tamworth
- Ribble Valley
- Bridgend
- Peterborough
- Caerphilly
- Amber Valley
- Calder Valley
- Bolsover
- Cramlington and Killingworth
- Monmouthshire
- South Ribble
- City of Durham
- Stoke-on-Trent South
- South East Cornwall
- Central Ayrshire
- Clwyd North
- Clwyd East
- South Norfolk
- Wycombe
- Llanelli
- North West Leicestershire
- Stalybridge and Hyde
- Neath and Swansea East
- South Dorset
- North East Hertfordshire
- Pendle and Clitheroe
- Macclesfield
- Luton South and South Bedfordshire
- Loughborough
- Bangor Aberconwy
- Scarborough and Whitby
- Southport
- Stafford
- Falkirk
- Swindon North
- South West Norfolk
- Newcastle-under-Lyme
- Rochdale
- Kilmarnock and Loudoun
- Warwick and Leamington
- Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare
- Ashford
- Stirling and Strathallan
- Aberafan Maesteg
- Truro and Falmouth
- WellingBorough and Rushden
- Aylesbury
- Blyth and Ashington
- St Austell and Newquay
- Alloa and Grangemouth
- Heywood and Middleton North
- Whitehaven and Workington
- Stevenage
- Selby
- Bolton West
- Leeds East
- Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West
- East Renfrewshire
- Broxtowe
- Sittingbourne and Sheppey
- Coatbridge and Bellshill
- Midlothian
- Doncaster North
- Carlisle
- Camborne and Redruth
- Mid Cheshire
- Newport East
- Hexham
- Easington
- Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch
- Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland
- Rushcliffe
- Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley
- Dartford
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke
- Sefton Central
- South Derbyshire
- Warrington North
- North East Somerset and Hanham
- Stroud
- Warrington South
- Rawmarsh and Conisbrough
- Doncaster Central
- Barnsley North
- Newport West and Islwyn
- High Peak
- Welwyn Hatfield
- Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme
- Livingston
- Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
- Isle of Wight West
- Wrexham
- Darlington
- East Kilbride and Strathaven
- Crewe and Nantwich
- Wigan
- Cannock Chase
- Rother Valley
- Suffolk Coastal
- Lichfield
- Chatham and Aylesford
- Bishop Auckland
- Congleton
- Wirral West
- Gedling
- Barrow and Furness
- Rugby
- Barnsley South
- Lancaster and Wyre
- North Northumberland
- Houghton and Sunderland South
- Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney
- East Worthing and Shoreham
- Burnley
- Airdrie and Shotts
- Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock
- Hitchin
- Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor
- Gravesham
- Bathgate and Linlithgow
- Alyn and Deeside
- Dover and Deal
- North Warwickshire and Bedworth
- Hyndburn
- Penistone and Stocksbridge
- Normanton and Hemsworth
- Mid and South Pembrokeshire
- Redcar
- Hemel Hempstead
- Blaydon and Consett
- Folkestone and Hythe
- Harlow
- Hamilton and Clyde Valley
- Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy
- Erewash
- Sherwood Forest
- Widnes and Halewood
- Derbyshire Dales
- Bassetlaw
- Leeds North West
- Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr
- Banbury
- Kettering
- Mansfield.
By Mo Metcalf-Fisher, external affairs director at the Countryside Alliance
Labour spent a great deal of time and energy before the last general election wooing rural voters.
Keir Starmer heroically pledged to ‘roll up his sleeves’ and restore ‘respect’ with the countryside.
It paid off. The party gained a record number of seats in rural areas, constituencies that had for many years been seen as completely unwinnable.
But no sooner had these new MPs ordered office furniture, did Rachel Reeves reveal her infamous plan for a tax hike on family farms.
The changes will mean many farmers will have to sell land or shut down altogether just to meet the eye-wateringly high tax bill. Despite repeated calls for a rethink, Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer have refused to listen. Pride and ego have trumped reason and common sense.
The behaviour and treatment of farming group leaders by the Treasury in last week’s meeting between the two sides to find a way forward out of the mess, has only made matters worse.
The Government is on cloud cuckoo land if it thinks its self-induced headache with farmers is going away. This is a major problem for Labour, because the public, as polls repeatedly show, are on the side of farmers.
Even Labour’s own voters detest the damaging family farm tax, which threatens national food security. Farmers are getting more organised and their campaign methods increasingly sophisticated.
There are no doubt many Labour MPs representing rural areas who are equally as appalled as the rest of the countryside at the Government’s handling of this sorry saga.
They too must feel they have been thrown under the bus. But they need to speak up, work together and be counted.
Farmers, who are fighting for their existence, are preparing for a long battle. The question to those MPs is which side are you on?
