Ministers “snuck out” the announcement that they had decided to U-turn on inheritance tax for farmers, the Conservatives have said after the government revealed the move in a press release two days before Christmas.
The shadow environment secretary, Victoria Atkins, accused the government of trying to dodge scrutiny of its latest policy reversal, under which the threshold for taxing inherited farmland will rise from a planned £1m to £2.5m.
The move was announced on Tuesday in a press release from the environment department after months of pressure from farmers, campaigners and some Labour MPs.
Atkins told Sky News on Wednesday morning: “This being snuck out the day before Christmas Eve means that, of course, we haven’t had chance to scrutinise this properly in parliament.
“It seems very odd that they have just snuck this out the day before Christmas Eve.
“And what is more, it was a secretary of state [Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary] that announced it, rather than the chancellor. The secretary of state just did a press clip yesterday. She’s not even out on the [broadcast media] round today … explaining her policy to the nation.
“So they’re trying to sort of slip this under the radar once everybody else is distracted with Christmas preparation.”
Rachel Reeves first announced at last year’s budget that she was going to tax inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m at a rate of 20%, removing reliefs that had been in place since the 1990s.
The chancellor, however, came under concerted pressure to reverse course, with farmers regularly protesting in Westminster and Labour MPs from rural areas warning about the impact on their constituencies.
Dozens of Labour MPs were reportedly preparing to rebel against the government and back an amendment to the bill that would have introduced the tax, which is scheduled to be debated in parliament next month.
Keir Starmer acknowledged concerns last week that some farmers were contemplating suicide over the changes – a worry also flagged in a recent report for the government by the former head of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Minette Batters.
Reynolds said on Tuesday that the government would raise the threshold at which the tax applies from £1m to £2.5m.
Treasury figures show this will reduce the amount of money raised from £430m to £300m. Officials would not say where the extra money would come from, though the £130m that has been foregone is a small fraction of the £22bn of headroom which Reeves has against her own fiscal rules.
The NFU president, Tom Bradshaw, said on Tuesday that the announcement was a “huge relief to many”.
Atkins would not say whether the Conservatives would remove the tax altogether should they win power at the next election.
“We need clarity from the government as to how this will apply. There will still be farms out there, where – because of the investment and the nurturing of the land by their fathers, grandfathers, grandmothers, great grandmothers over the generations – they simply will not be able to pay this tax bill, even with this welcome U-turn by the government,” she said.
