One of its own peers has hit out at Labour warning it is “almost becoming the cruel party” as anger over the “tractor tax” mounts.
The chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing a revolt in rural England over her decision to extend inheritance tax to family farms.
Thousands of farmers brought Westminster to a standstill on Tuesday when they descended on the capital to voice their opposition to the changes.
Baroness Mallalieu, who is president of the Countryside Alliance and joined farmers on the march, has now warned her government that it is losing the trust of rural communities.
And, in an echo of a phrase Theresa May once infamously used to describe the Tories (“the nasty party”), Lady Mallalieu said: “We are almost becoming the cruel party.”
The president of the Countryside Alliance said: “It has taken the Labour Party 14 years to win back the trust of the countryside after that last attack on hunting.
“Since the last election we have more than 100 MPs in rural seats, but here we are making the same mistakes again.”
Labour under Sir Tony Blair brought in the fox hunting ban, which the Countryside Alliance opposed.
The changes mean that farms valued at £1m or more would be liable for 20 per cent inheritance tax.
The Treasury says that, with tax allowances, in reality only farms worth £3m would be affected, just 28 per cent of family farms. But official Defra figures appear to suggest as many as 66 per cent could be hit.
Lady Mallalieu said the tax changes are “not just threatening farmers in their pockets. They are threatening their family and their home.”
She added: “On the march, I heard there have been four suicides already among farmers and, for me, the most unpleasant side – and I don’t think the government thought about this – is that they are saying to elderly farmers, make yourself die before March 2026 to save your family from losing their home.”
On Friday, Sir Keir Starmer insisted his government supported farmers but warned the money is needed to fund public services.
The prime minister told BBC Bristol: “We’re for working people who need to be better off, who’ve really struggled over recent years.
“We’re for everybody who wants to and needs to rely on the NHS, which is on its knees, and we’ve got to pick it up and we will and get those waiting lists down.
Meanwhile, shadow farming secretary Victoria Atkins said that while the wealthiest landowners would avoid the tax, family farms would have the “rug ripped out from under them”.
She said: “The wealthiest landowners will be able to find expensive lawyers to work their way around through trusts.
“What is so worrying about this is that this literally rips the rug out from under the feet of farmers, who for generations have done nothing more than do the right thing, farm their land, bring their children up to understand how to run a farm, how to work with livestock, how to run an arable farm.”
