The leftist Labour Party government’s plans to impose inheritance tax on British farmers is nothing more than a class warfare ploy to free up land to build houses for immigrants, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed.
Plans from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government to impose a 20 per cent tax on inherited farming assets above £1 million — as a great many family farms are — have sparked widespread concern among family farms about the future of their ability to maintain legacies.
As a result of the soaring cost of land, significant numbers of small farming operations, many of whom are only scraping by financially, could be forced to close up shop rather than being able to pass down their tradecraft to the next generation.
While many have characterized the move as a mere money grab by the recently-installed left-wing government, Clacton MP Nigel Farage suggested that the government may actually be more interested in the land in order to clear British countryside to pave the way for housing projects for the ever-growing migrant population.
“I now have no doubt about it, mass immigration means we have to build one new home every two minutes in this country. Where better to get it than farm and farming families who will have to sell up when someone dies if they haven’t gifted it seven years before,” Mr Farage remarked.
“The whole thing is the most disgusting attack. Remember this: our landscape is one of the most beautiful in the world, and the reason is the farming practices we’ve used over centuries. All of that is directly under threat,” he warned.
The Reform UK argued that while the price of farmland in Britain may have been artificially inflated by wealthy individuals seeking to avoid inheritance tax by taking advantage of agricultural tax breaks, the net effect of Labour’s tax plan would see struggling farmers suffer the most.
“The farm with 200 Acres, whatever it may be, now has a land value of millions, and yet they’ll be lucky to make 30 or 50 grand a year working damned hard out of it. Labour’s plans mean that farmland will have to be sold, that family farms will get broken up.”
Mr Farage said that in addition to making room for migrants, the leftist policy was a “class war” intended as retribution for Former Tory PM Margaret Thatcher’s move to bust coal mining unions. While the British Union demonstrations during the 1980s were broadly a feature of the left, farming protests across Europe over the past several years have leaned towards the right, often opposing globalist trade deals and burdensome green regulations.
Farage cited comments from former advisor to ex-Labour PM Tony Blair, who openly suggested this week that Starmer take the same hardline approach to farmers as Thatcher had towards the miners, which often saw violent clashes between unions and police.
“I’m personally in favour of doing to farmers who want to go on the streets; we can do to them what Margaret Thatcher did to the miners… there’s an industry we could do without,” former Labour advisor John McTernan told GB News on Monday.
In a statement provided to Breitbart London, Reform MP Rupert Lowe responded: “The farming sector employs nearly half a million people. Doing anything other than supporting it is wrong. It is an industry we absolutely cannot do without.
“To say John McTernan’s comments are disgusting would be an understatement. He is advocating for shutting down family farms, leaving hundreds of thousands unemployed, and bringing further poverty to our country. People like this should be nowhere near power.”
Lowe said Reform UK is “committed” to the prosperity and preservation of British farming communities, declaring: “An attack on farming is an attack on Great Britain. Our farmers are the backbone of this nation, yet Labour’s disregard for their livelihoods is nothing short of disgraceful.”