Friday, December 26, 2025
Another u-turn just adding to the chaos
The paper says that under the plans, announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves last year, farmers were to be charged 20 per cent on agricultural assets above £1m from April 2026, but on Tuesday, Labour said it was raising the threshold from £1m to £2.5m, meaning that most farms would not have to pay it.
This u-turn follows months of protests and campaigning, with farmers fearing that family-run farms would be worst affected:
The climbdown comes after crunch talks between National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw and the prime minister last week, The Independent understands, following a year of protests about the measures.
Gareth Wyn Jones, a farmer from North Wales who was one of the leaders of the protests against the tax, told The Independent the announcement was “great news”, while former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who has also been very critical of the policy, welcomed the climbdown.
Meanwhile, a farmer whose father killed himself the day before last October’s Budget amid worries over the inheritance tax changes said the government’s climbdown was “the best Christmas present for a lot of farmers”, but he accused ministers of demonstrating “a complete lack of understanding and compassion” in relation to rural communities.
Jonathan Charlesworth, who found his father John Philip Charlesworth dead in a barn on their farm in Silkstone, Barnsley, said: “It’s a welcome U-turn that won’t bring back the lives lost over the last year or so due to the anxiety caused, but will hopefully prevent a flood of suicides running up to the commencement in April.”
He added: “The flip side is, it should have been researched and put out to review before any announcement was made.”
The higher threshold, which will take effect in April, will allow spouses or civil partners to pass on up to £5m in qualifying agricultural or business assets between them before paying inheritance tax, on top of existing allowances, Defra said.
In addition, farmers will get 50 per cent relief on qualifying assets above the threshold, paying a reduced effective rate of up to 20 per cent rather than the standard 40 per cent.
The number of estates facing higher inheritance tax will be reduced from around 2,000 under the original plans to around 1,100, meaning it will affect only the largest farms, according to the government.
Although this u-turn is very welcome, one can't help having the feeling that all of this embarrassment for Labour ministers could have been avoided if they had done their research in the first place and listened to those affected by the changes.
Instead, we get the impression of a government veering from crisis to crisis, never fully in control of their own agenda.
