Family Farm Tax Crisis: Government challenged on £536m a year to farmers in Brazil and Kenya while UK farmers face 'existential' threat from their own government

The claims were made in the House of Commons in recent days during a debate on the Future of Farming.

Last week farmers from around the UK converged on London once again to protest outside the Houses of Parliament against resolute Government plans to impose 20% inheritance tax on agricultural property and land worth more than £1 million.

Stormont’s Department of Agriculture is opposing the plans, estimating that around 50% of NI’s 24,000 farms are under threat from the new rules.

Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart, who took part in the debate, issued a statement on Tuesday in which she asked the government "what good is so-called environmental progress if we end up importing more food from abroad—food produced to lower standards, with a far greater carbon footprint than what we can grow here at home?"

She added: “To add insult to injury, we know that while British farmers struggle, foreign farmers are receiving £536 million from the UK aid budget."

"British taxpayers’ money is funding low-carbon agriculture in countries like Brazil—the 11th richest nation in the world—and Kenya, while our own farmers face crisis.”

Ms Lockhart said: “The October Budget was a defining moment in this Parliament’s history, delivering the biggest hammer blow to farmers in a generation. The ‘Family Farm Tax Grab,’ as it is now known, is an existential threat to the future of farming."

Those who survive will be "strangled" by the government’s other "disastrous" policies, she said, such as the closure of the UK Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI), a new tax on double-cab pickup trucks, tax increases on fertilisers, a hike in National Insurance contributions, cuts to Business Property Relief, and an "ever-growing burden" of environmental rules and regulations.

She told MPs that before he came into government, Sir Keir Starmer told the National Farmers’ Union Conference in 2023 that, 'Losing a farm is not like losing any other business—it can’t come back'.

He went on to speak about a ‘genuine partnership’ and said farmers deserved ‘a government that listens, stability and certainty’.

Ms Lockhart added: “Well, those words ring hollow, don’t they?”

During the same debate Labour MP Sadik Al-Hassan said politicians are being “distracted” from fundamental issues facing farmers because of the focus on inheritance tax, citing in particular the “excessive power of supermarkets in contract negotiations and the raw deal farmers get as a consequence”.

But Conservative former minister John Glen said the impact of changes to inheritance tax on farmers has been “catastrophic”.

He said: “A number of farmers rang me up and said ‘this is the end, what are we going to do?’”

Responding to Ms Lockhart, a Government spokesperson said Labour had inherited farming schemes which were underspent, with farms missing out on millions of pounds.

“The Government proudly secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history," she said.

"We now have record number of farmers into schemes and more money being paid to farms than ever before. As a result, we have now hit the maximum limit of the scheme and have stopped accepting new applications.

“The Government will reopen a new and improved SFI scheme with more details coming this summer.”

She advised that three quarters of farmers will continue to pay no inheritance tax, while the remaining quarter will pay "half the inheritance tax that most people pay".