The star of Clarkson’s Farm said a battle has been won but the fight goes on.
Jeremy Clarkson has warned Sir Keir Starmer is still destroying the countryside despite the Government’s inheritance tax U-turn for farmers. The star of Clarkson’s Farm said a battle has been won but the fight goes on as he argued half of farmers would still be affected.
He said: “The new higher tax threshold will still destroy the countryside.” Clarkson warned the policy change would affect Britain’s ability to feed itself, adding there are thousands of UK farmers dealing with the stress of knowing they can’t pass their farm on to “the only people who know how to run it”.
Writing in The Sun, Clarkson was commenting after the Government watered down plans which will now see the inheritance tax relief threshold for farmers raised from £1million to £2.5m.
It comes after months of protest spearheaded by Clarkson and warnings of farmers contemplating suicide to avoid the taxes as they pass their businesses from generation to generation.
The higher threshold takes effect in April and allows spouses or civil partners to pass on up to £5m in qualifying agricultural or business assets between them before paying inheritance tax.
This is on top of existing allowances, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Above that allowance, farmers will get 50% relief on qualifying assets and will pay a reduced effective rate of up to 20%, rather than the standard 40%.
The number of estates facing higher inheritance tax will be reduced from around 2,000 under the original plans to up to 1,100, hitting only the largest farms, according to the Government.
Farmers currently do not pay inheritance tax on agricultural and business assets which they pass on.
Under Labour’s initial proposal, the full 100% relief was to be restricted to the first £1 million of property.
Announcing the tax relief threshold hike on Tuesday, Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said the Government had “listened closely to farmers across the country and we are making changes today to protect more ordinary family farms”.
She added: “It’s only right that larger estates contribute more, while we back the farms and trading businesses that are the backbone of Britain’s rural communities.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the “fight isn’t finished”, adding: “Other family businesses are still affected by Labour’s tax raid, and we will keep pushing until the tax is lifted from them too.”
The Liberal Democrats’ environment, food and rural affairs spokesman Tim Farron called for the Government to scrap the “unfair tax in full” as “many family farms will still find themselves financially crippled and barely making the minimum wage”.
