The government has been accused of “treating the public like fools” after claiming its controversial farm inheritance tax plans will be used to fund a crackdown on shoplifting.
Labour MP Torsten Bell, who is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions, said changes to inheritance tax announced in last year's budget would help put more police on the streets, a claim that has drawn sharp criticism from rural campaigners.
The government is under growing pressure over its handling of record levels of shoplifting, while the controversy over the so-called 'family farm tax' continues to intensify.
Earlier this year, the prime minister said the public faced a choice between “smaller NHS waiting lists and tax breaks for farmers”, adding: “We can’t have both.”
However, analysis has since suggested that Chancellor Rachel Reeves' policy will actually cost the Treasury almost £2 billion, despite repeated claims to the contrary.
The debate has been inflamed by a series of remarks that critics say show ministers and peers are out of touch with rural communities.
In May, Labour peer Lord Foulkes came under fire for saying that farmers protesting outside Westminster “did not look very poor” because of their “shiny tractors”, and for suggesting that the Opposition opposed the policy simply because “they always want to make the rich even richer”.
Johnnie Furse, spokesperson for the Countryside Alliance, said ministers were misleading the public, accusing them of dressing up IHT changes with vague promises about how the revenue would be used and portraying farmers as wealthy enough to absorb the hit. “Yet again, the government are showing just how out of touch they are.
"We have repeatedly seen members of the government attempt to justify the family farm tax with vague claims about how the money raised will be used, and with statements that farmers are rich and can afford it.
“These claims have been proven to be completely hollow.” He argued that independent analysis suggests the policy would leave the Treasury worse off and pointed to the wave of farm closures since last autumn as evidence of the strain on viability.
“The government must listen to reason and common sense, and properly reconsider this hugely unpopular, out of touch, and economically unsound policy.”
The Countryside Alliance said it would continue campaigning for the farming community and urged ministers to rethink the tax.
