The farming sector have described Labour’s inheritance tax raid as “catastrophic” and the Chancelor has doubled down over of her decisions saying it is “not affordable” to pursue with the relief for farmers.
Rachel Reeves has insisted there is “pressure on finances” the tax raid will help “improving our public services and putting our public finances on a firm footing.”
GB News reported the President of the National Farmers’ Union Tom Bradshaw has said Labour have made a “massive mistake.”
Speaking to GB News, Lincolnshire farmer Andrew Ward said, “I was watching the whole Budget in the office on the television, and it was like watching a horror movie.
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Everything that was announced is absolutely catastrophic for British farming, for family farms and general food production in the UK.
The farmer added, “They’ve said that they want to bring stability to the economy, but actually doing what they’ve done is exactly the opposite.
As a farmer, I understand tax profits, but taxing the means of where that profit comes from is absolutely ludicrous.
“And I think we also need to look at food. Do the government want us to produce food in this country, or do they want to fly it in thousands of miles from abroad?
“Because that’s what will happen if this whole tax is not reversed.”
He said the farming community was hit with the “wettest 18 months on record” this has affected growth.
Ward added to GB News, “We’ve had a third of the farm this last harvest not growing any food at all because of the weather. And that is a huge problem for us financially to have to stomach.
“So if we don’t make a profit and we’re open to the constraints of the weather, where are the profits coming from to pay this tax?
“Food security is so on a balance at the moment. We import 40% currently, and that will go up massively if this whole tax thing is not reversed.
“I know we have ten years to pay it, but the cost of everything in operating the farm with machinery, it’s £1million might buy a combine and two tractors, so that’s the threshold. Whoever advised the government, I would like to know and why they set it at £1million.”
