The Labour government has been branded “shameful”.
Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
Keir Starmer has been dealt another humiliating blow as GB News was interrupted for a breaking announcement. It was revealed that government proposals to tax inherited farmland have been watered down, with the planned threshold raised from £1 million to £2.5 million. It comes after months of protests by farmers and concern from some Labour backbenchers. But Conservative MP Victoria Atkins has accused the Labour government of ignoring farmers’ suicide warnings for over a year following the U-turn.
Speaking to GB News presenters Christopher Hope and Dawn Neesom, Atkins recalled Steve Reed claiming that the Labour government would not raise family farm tax. “What is the first thing they do when they get into government? They impose the family farm tax,” she fumed. Atkins claimed “there is no trust here”, adding that the Conservatives are working closely with the farming community to build a “bright and positive vision” for farming.
Issuing a scathing verdict, the politician said: “We know how important it is to keep these critical industries going and Labour is seeking to destroy them. It’s incredibly upsetting and I think it is shameful the way this government has behaved over the last 14 months.”
Hope acknowledged there have been several threats of farmers taking their own lives, which Atkins believe the government has been fully aware about.
She explained: “We heard about a farmer committing suicide before last Christmas. We have raised these tragic cases throughout the last year. Ministers have known for a long time that this has been happening. They can’t pretend they didn’t know. They did know.
Atkins continued: “Farmers themselves have been writing to ministers, their letters have very often gone unanswered, with their concerns and they’ve had nothing but the dodgy maths that ministers have been relying on repeatedly over the last 14 months, claiming 75 per cent of the state won’t be affected.
Victoria Atkins ripped into the Labour government (Image: GB News)
“Every single farmer I knew was affected by it. If their maths has been this dodgy for 14 months, how on earth are we to trust their maths going forward in the future?
“This is why we will have to look at the detail of this announcement. It is outrageous that such a significant fiscal U-turn has happened outside a fiscal event. This is a really big deal.”
She went on: “Does this mean that this chaotic Chancellor, after the shambles of the six months ahead of her Budget of broken promises, does this now mean she is going to be making fiscal announcements as and when it pleases her?”
Hope clarified that it wasn’t Rachel Reeves who ripped up part of her Budget, asking: “Where is Rachel Reeves? It’s her Budget being ripped up here.”
Atkins suggested this could mean other Labour minsters could start unpicking her Budget.
