The government’s partial U-turn on what opponents dubbed the “farms tax” was a Christmas present for those who had campaigned against the imposition of 20% inheritance tax from next April.About half the farms that would have been affected will now be exempt.But given that minsters had defended the policy in the 14 months since last year’s Budget, the questions are: Why change it? And why now?Sustained protests – the regular convoys of tractors, horns blaring, converging on Parliament Square – certainly played a part. The National Farmers’ Union which had organised the noisy demonstrations had also engaged in quieter diplomacy behind the scenes with Downing Street and the agriculture department. It has been reported that discussions shifted to mitigating rather than obliterating the policy completely. But there are other factors.A consequence of last year’s landslide Labour election victory is that more of the party’s MPs represent rural and semi-rural seats. Behind closed doors, some of them had been pressing hard for concessions. While only one voted against, more than 30 of them actively abstained on a parliamentary vote on the inheritance tax policy earlier this month to demonstrate their concerns.Beyond this, the reasons for the timing of the government’s volte face are speculative.One of the rural rebels told me that conversations with ministers had been more positive this month – though they had not been told in advance of yesterday’s announcement.And some believe that Sir Keir Starmer’s appearance this month before t …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnThe government’s partial U-turn on what opponents dubbed the “farms tax” was a Christmas present for those who had campaigned against the imposition of 20% inheritance tax from next April.About half the farms that would have been affected will now be exempt.But given that minsters had defended the policy in the 14 months since last year’s Budget, the questions are: Why change it? And why now?Sustained protests – the regular convoys of tractors, horns blaring, converging on Parliament Square – certainly played a part. The National Farmers’ Union which had organised the noisy demonstrations had also engaged in quieter diplomacy behind the scenes with Downing Street and the agriculture department. It has been reported that discussions shifted to mitigating rather than obliterating the policy completely. But there are other factors.A consequence of last year’s landslide Labour election victory is that more of the party’s MPs represent rural and semi-rural seats. Behind closed doors, some of them had been pressing hard for concessions. While only one voted against, more than 30 of them actively abstained on a parliamentary vote on the inheritance tax policy earlier this month to demonstrate their concerns.Beyond this, the reasons for the timing of the government’s volte face are speculative.One of the rural rebels told me that conversations with ministers had been more positive this month – though they had not been told in advance of yesterday’s announcement.And some believe that Sir Keir Starmer’s appearance this month before t …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
