'Keir Starmer didn't pick fight with tax-dodging landowners - but it's one he must win'

Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a combat with landowners galore of whom person vowed to grind London to a halt arsenic the authorities explores avenues to rise much-needed funds

Keir Starmer didn’t deliberately prime a half-a-billion fight with tax-dodging affluent landowners and feather-bedded farmers, but present it is 1 helium indispensable triumph it.

Filling their tractors with cheap reddish diesel to thrust into London and make gridlock time volition beryllium an aggravated protestation from a sliver of the countryside that is usually shouting astatine people to get disconnected their land. Back successful 2002, an estimated 400,000 chopped from the aforesaid cloth clogged the superior successful convulsive outbursts to support fox hunting – and the cruel humor athletics was, thankfully, inactive outlawed.

Prime Minister Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are braced to basal steadfast successful the content that sympathy volition ebb erstwhile the nationalist understands this isn’t truly astir tiny household farms but astir loaded investors buying onshore to debar inheritance tax.

Labour MPs successful agrarian areas are to beryllium briefed connected selling the benefits of amended wellness and societal care, schools, policing and autobus services that volition beryllium delivered successful the shires. Cheered connected by hypocritical Tories who screwed farmers with Brexit – with commercialized deals favouring Australia and New Zealand, positive slashed grants – it could get ugly.

The interest successful No10 is that the tractor brigade volition effort to repetition the 2000 substance blockage of lipid refineries. Tough exigency powers would beryllium activated to let tankers to support replenishing petrol stations, I’m told.

And 1 elder Labour fig predicted motorists queuing for hours would rapidly crook connected greedy landowners. The question is, however rapidly volition voters admit however comparatively fewer household farms volition beryllium progressive – due to the fact that an cultivation mates could permission up to £3million, not £1m, earlier half-price 20% taxation is levied connected the information of bequests astir that value.

These are extraordinarily generous terms, with different couples enjoying lone the £1m bounds past paying 40% successful inheritance tax. Margaret Thatcher exempted landowners from inheritance taxation successful 1984 to reward followers successful an epoch erstwhile inequality mushroomed and she smashed coal, steel, shipyard, car and people workers.

It feels an property agone alternatively than past twelvemonth that Starmer wowed the National Farmers’ Union with a code connected wherefore agrarian communities are successful his DNA, however his archetypal occupation was connected a workplace aged 14 picking stones from a tract for 50p an hr connected the Surrey-Kent borderline wherever helium lived.

This isn’t an urban-rural battle. It’s astir backing nationalist services successful agrarian areas by closing a taxation loophole.