Farmers are contemplating suicide so Labour’s inheritance tax raid does not hammer their youngsters, Starmer is warned as one in all his personal MPs says he has disrespected the countryside

Frail farmers are contemplating taking their own lives within the next few months to avoid Labour‘s inheritance tax raid hammering their children, Sir Keir Starmer was warned today. 

Labour MP Cat Smith accused the PM of disrespecting the countryside over changes to agricultural property relief that will come into effect in April. 

The Lancaster and Wyre MP said many farmers were considering suicide before then so their farms are not liable for inheritance tax for the first time, something which she said would make many ‘unviable’.

At the Liaison Committee, a panel of senior parliamentarians who chair the various Commons committees, she said rural communities ‘put their trust in Labour for the very first time in a very long time and gave us a mandate for change in this country’ in the 2024 landslide election win.

But she said farmers felt ‘misled’ by the changes announced months later in Rachel Reeves‘s first Budget, which triggered tractor protests in Westminster.

She said ‘elderly farmers, or farmers with a terminal diagnosis, are in a position whereby if they die before April, their farm will pass to the next generation with no tax implications’.

The MP asked Sir Keir: ‘Can you see how farmers can feel that this Government hasn’t necessarily treated them the way that they expect to be treated as working people?’

Labour MP Cat Smith accused the PM of disrespecting the countryside over changes to agricultural property relief that will come into effect in April.

She tolf the PM farmers felt ‘misled’ by the changes announced months later in Rachel Reeves’s first Budget, which triggered tractor protests in Westminster.

The MP asked Sir Keir: ‘Can you see how farmers can feel that this Government hasn’t necessarily treated them the way that they expect to be treated as working people?’

The Prime Minister told her: ‘I do understand the concern, and I met with the president of the NFU (National Farmers’ Union) just last week, as I’ve met with him before, to run through the particular concerns they have.

‘I do think on agricultural property relief, there had to be sensible reform. And I think this is sensible reform.’

But Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: ‘Today’s Liaison Committee appearance shows that Keir Starmer is once again putting party before country.

‘He has acknowledged that farmers are taking their own lives following the introduction of his family farm tax, yet he still refuses to change course. He claims to have taken action in the past against those who leak sensitive information but could not say when or how. It is a litany of failures from a weak Prime Minister.

‘Keir Starmer needs to grow a backbone, listen to the serious concerns being raised – including by his own MPs – and start governing in the national interest rather than protecting his own position.’

From April 2026, farm landowners will pay inheritance tax at an effective rate of up to 20 per cent on their agricultural land, but can pass on agricultural and business estates worth up to £1 million without facing a bill. 

The farming community has fiercely opposed the changes since they were proposed in last year’s budget.

The change is expected to bring in around £500 million a year for the Exchequer.

Ms Smith asked if Sir Keir was ‘aware that some farmers who have a terminal diagnosis now are actively planning to expedite their own deaths’ before April.

Sir Keir told her: ‘I’ve had discussions with a number of individuals who have drawn all manner of things to my attention.’

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee chairman Alistair Carmichael said: ‘Nobody should be left feeling – as Cat Smith has just described – that they would be better off dying between now and next April.’

Sir Keir told him: ‘No, of course. But governments have to bring about sensible reform.’

Mr Carmichael, a Liberal Democrat, asked Sir Keir why he was not willing to ditch the policy in the face of criticism, including from Labour-dominated parliamentary committees.

The Lib Dem said: ‘You don’t have to listen to me. You don’t even have to listen to the farmers out there. You don’t have to listen to the president of the NFU.

‘But why do you not listen to your own party colleagues?’

Sir Keir told him: ‘I do listen to party colleagues all the time.’

Mo Metcalf Fisher, of the Countryside Alliance, said: ‘These are incredibly heartless remarks made in defence of the indefensible. 

‘The Prime Minister should stop, listen and reflect on the outpouring of concerns from the rural community and his own MPs and immediately reset his relationship with the countryside by rethinking this disastrous policy before it’s too late.’