Farmers are being crucified by arrogant Labour MPs.
What’s Labour’s problem with farmers? More importantly why does Labour think it’s okay to lie so blatantly? What kind of person can be a Labour MP and think it is ok to make promises on the doorstep and in a national manifest and then do an immediate u-turn once elected?
They said in their 2024 General Election manifesto they would champion
British farmers… Pardon, are they having a laugh? Read that again…Champion British Farmers.
There’s six policy changes Labour’s made coming into power. Have a look what they’ve done and you tell me if this is championing farmers? I don’t think so and I doubt you will either.
1. The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) – scrapped
Out of the blue, Labour announced the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). This was a flagship payment scheme encouraging farmers to pursue nature-friendly farming. It paid farmers to not only plant wildflower strips and managing ponds and hedgerows but also follow soil improvement practices. Some farms have come to rely on SFI and its sudden stop can mean the farm is no longer viable. Charles Goadby in Warwickshire said,
“It will impact us hugely, you take away the SFI, you take away another income while we try desperately to survive. You don’t make a penny from farming anymore, it’s unsustainable and so we now need the support. This is devastating.”
2. Inheritance Tax applied to farms
Most of you will now have heard of Labour’s inheritance tax on farms that has been described as “a hammer blow” by the National Farmers Union. Labour can’t seem to understand, or doesn’t want to understand, that farms need a lot of land to be economically viable. The land a farm owns might have a high value, but is forms part of a working whole and cannot be disposed of without destroying the whole basis of a farm and a family’s livelihood. Charging a farming family 20% inheritance tax on its land following a death means the huge parcels of land would have to be sold to pay the tax rendering the farm unviable. The new tax applies to farms worth over £1 Million which sounds a lot but really isn’t. These farms are asset rich but the return on capital is miserly. This will break up farms and either see the land snapped or by multinational global operations or turned over for huge housing developments assisted by councils. The same farmer quoted above said, “With my father aged 81, we’re looking at a succession plan, but we fear inheritance tax will destroy us,” Mr Goadby said. “How are we going to raise £800k, and pay it over 20 years? We’re going to have to sell up land to survive which will make us less viable.”
3. Farm shops and tourism hit by increased rates and NI
Farm shops will be hit by a massive increase in business rates because they are are classed as non-agricultural. This will include other commercial activities that farmers have turned to in order to ,make ends meet such as holiday accommodation, wedding venues, storage businesses, dairy ice cream shops, and animal petting. The existing 75% discount on retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) business rates, will be replaced by a 40% relief in April 2025 up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business. This will mean that many businesses will see their business rates nearly double squeezing farmers even more.
Any staff employed in these farming ventures will attract increases in the National Insurance paid to the government on their wages as well as increases in the minimum wage.
4. Compulsory Purchase Orders – Asset Stripping Farms
Angela Rayner’s new Planning Bill will give councils new powers to force people to give up land for a price set by the council. This is so councils will be able to build more houses to meet demand which is rising month by month as more immigrants enter the UK every year. In fact since 2012, over 1.2 million people migrated to UK, the equivalent to population of Birmingham city.
To keep costs down the council can force a farmer to sell at the agricultural price, not the development price of land with planning permission. They can then grant planning permission and sell the land for a higher price to a builder/developer. The poor farmer loses land that might be essential to keep his farm viable, the farmer has to pay Capital Gains Tax on the land he didn’t even want to sell! And for those of you who are not farmers, think about the consequences.
First, you should know this. Councils will favour new building plots in fields next to existing settlements. Why? Because they will have most of the existing services in place; sewers, water supply, electricity, phone/internet cables. The focus will be on those nice fields next to your village or town.
And second, it’s not just farmers who will be targeted in villages and towns. That bungalow next to you with the big garden might be deemed suitable for an ‘in-fill,’ one or two little starter homes might help the council meet its housing target. With Green belt out of the window, the natural breaks between towns and villages could disappear to be replaced with a stretches of new housing that merge villages into one big conurbation.
5. Farm pickup trucks are now taxed as cars
Just to twist the knife a little further into farmer’s backs, Labour have announced that double pickup trucks will be classed as cars. These trucks are used by farmers, gamekeepers and tree surgeons around the countryside and the combination of passenger space and load carrying functionality make them efficient and useful commercial vehicles.
As of April 2025 these vehicles will no longer treated as essential tools of the trade effecting capital allowances, benefits in kind (BIK) and some deductions from business profits. This means a typical double-cab pickup could see a as much as 211 per cent tax increase.
6. Prime farm land redesigned for Net Zero solar farms
In an attack on food security, Labour set a dangerous precent by giving a Solar Energy company approval to use what is called Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land. Instead of the land at Eden Farm , in Old Malton producing food the land will now house a 52.86-hectare solar farm. The Labour Government dismissed local opposition, including that of the Council and agreed to investment company Harmony Energy’s appeal. The long-standing tenant farmers who have farmed there for years now have their livelihood threatened and a precedent has been established that threatens the country’s food security.
ABC Labour – Arrogant, Barmy, Cruel
What’s driving Labour’s cruel attack on farmers? Is it the ignorance of a metropolitan focussed elite who just don’t understand farming and rural life? Or is it something more sinister reminiscent of past communists attempts to deliberately destroy rural based peoples and seize land and the means of food production. Whatever it is, it is a horrible form of legalised theft and destruction that people in the countryside must not forget.
