Labour’s family farm tax raid was flawed and ruined relations with the countryside, Sir Keir Starmer’s former rural minister has said.
Daniel Zeichner, who was the minister for the environment from 2024-2025, said The Treasury forced the policy through without considering the political fallout among rural voters.
He told The Telegraph that too many government officials with no knowledge of the countryside were responsible for scrapping the decades-long inheritance tax exemption for agricultural land in Labour’s 2024 Budget.
This initially left family farms facing a 20pc levy on assets worth more than £1m. Rachel Reeves, then chancellor, later increased the threshold to £2.5m after a fierce backlash saw farmers drive their tractors through Westminster in protest.
Mr Zeichner said: “I think the problem is that there probably weren’t people close enough to the discussion who knew enough about rural areas and farming to know what the response would be.
“They looked at it from a tax point of view, rather than understanding the politics.”
Daniel Zeichner said Labour ‘should be careful about picking fights with the countryside’ – House of Commons
As the Labour MP for Cambridge, Mr Zeichner claimed to have experienced farmers’ fury first-hand.
He said: “I wasn’t completely opposed from a policy perspective, but I knew that the emotional effect it would have would be huge, and that’s exactly what happened.
“I think, in hindsight, if people had known that that was going to be the consequence, they probably wouldn’t have done it. Labour should be careful about picking fights with the countryside.”
His comments echo similar criticism made by Lord Blunkett earlier this week, who called the inheritance tax on farms a “mistake”.
He said: “If you’re an urban dweller all your life and you’ve got Treasury economic orthodoxy in your soul, you won’t understand that family farms are only family because they are passed down from one generation to another.”
The Labour grandee called for a “rural reset” to undo a set of policies deemed to be treating the countryside “as the enemy”.
As well as imposing inheritance tax on family farms, Labour has unveiled plans to ban trail hunting and launched a review of game shooting.
Countryside groups are protesting against Labour’s pledge to ban trail hunting – Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph
Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, said he was still fearful that the inheritance tax changes would destroy rural investment and put Britain’s food security at risk after they became law in April.
He said: “We’ve been clear that we oppose the changes to inheritance tax on farming, which treat business assets as personal wealth.
“While we welcomed the concessions that have been made, some family farms still face substantial tax bills. This is stifling investment and could break up food producing businesses at a time of global instability and climate pressures.”
Since replacing Sir Keir in July, Andy Burnham has not signalled any potential climbdown on the issue.
Gavin Lane, the president of the Country Land and Business Association, said: “I think the tax is bad politics and bad policy. We presented data which showed how big the impact would be and we knew it was going to be much greater than the government let on.
“We are now seeing underinvestment in family farm businesses because people are so worried about this tax looming over them.”
A government spokesman said: “We are starting a new conversation with farmers. Our new Environment Secretary is travelling the country to see first-hand the incredible work that goes into getting food from field to fork, as we build a stronger, more resilient and profitable farming sector together.”