Angela Rayner says farmers’ concerns over inheritance tax is 'scaremongering'

20 November 2024, 13:23 | Updated: 20 November 2024, 14:08

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner accuses farmers of 'scaremongering' over inheritance tax in PMQs - after mass protests took over parts of central London yesterday.

At PMQs today, Rayner defended Labour's inheritance tax plan after criticism in the Commons.

Rayner said there is "scaremongering" around what the Labour Party is doing, as "The Budget delivered £5 billion for farming over the next two years."

The Deputy Leader noted that the previous, Conservative, government failed to spend the needed £300 million on farmers.

This comes as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper, said that farmer feel "betrayed by the Conservatives" and "lied to by Labour."

She said of her constituents was worried as "the changes mean that her family may have to pay a bill which will force them to sell land, which makes food production unviable."

Rayner argued that their inheritance tax plan will protect smaller farming estates.

Read More: Jeremy Clarkson tells government to 'back down' over inheritance tax changes at farmer's protest

Read More: 'Do farmers' tax protests show Labour's Budget is starting to unravel?' asks Andrew Marr

Protests were led in central London by celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson, who warned that the proposed changes to inheritance tax would mean "the end" for family farming.

Clarkson demanded Labour 'backs down' over its tax grab as he joined more than 20,000 farmers for a mass protest, with some arriving in their tractors.

Farmers arrived at the event in a convoy of tractors bearing 'the final straw' signs before joining a huge rally attended by the likes of Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform leader Nigel Farage.

Nigel Farage has told LBC that Rachel Reeve's plan "needs a rethink." 

The Reform UK leader is attending the protest and warned that "decent people will not survive" the increase in tax.

He said: "Your number crunchers in the treasury have got their sums wrong, as they nearly always do. 

"The little guys will survive, the agribusiness will survive, all these decent people today will not survive this."