No 10 dodges row over Elon Musk’s claims UK is ‘going full Stalin’ with farmers

Downing Street has refused to beryllium drawn into a enactment with Elon Musk, aft the tech billionaire described the Government arsenic “going afloat Stalin” successful its attack to farmers.

Mr Musk made the assertion connected X, formerly Twitter, the societal media level helium owns.

The businessman, who volition counsel Donald Trump’s incoming US administration, shared a screenshot of a Guardian paper nonfiction titled “Farmers person hoarded onshore for excessively long. Inheritance taxation volition bring caller beingness to agrarian Britain”.

The sentiment portion predicted that changes to inheritance taxation alleviation for farmers made by Rachel Reeves astatine the Budget could pb to a break-up of the largest farms, giving younger farmers a accidental to bargain onshore and participate the industry.

But Mr Musk was much captious of the reforms successful his response, penning successful a repost: “Britain is going afloat Stalin.”

The billionaire’s assertion appears to beryllium a notation to Soviet person Joseph Stalin’s forced collectivisation of erstwhile privately owned farms, which brought them into authorities power betwixt 1928 and 1940.

Asked for a effect to Mr Musk’s criticisms, Downing Street said it would not “get into a backmost and distant connected idiosyncratic comments”.

A No 10 spokeswoman said: “The responses I gave this greeting proceed to beryllium the case: that we volition proceed to prosecute with the manufacture and explicate however the process works, and it remains the lawsuit that we expect the immense bulk to beryllium unaffected by the changes.”

She would not beryllium drawn into saying whether the Government rejected Mr Musk’s premise, adding only: “The Prime Minister’s ain words are precise wide successful presumption of the enactment that we person for farmers and their importance, and we volition proceed to pass however the strategy works to supply that reassurance.”

The Twitter and Tesla proprietor has antecedently been an outspoken professional of Sir Keir Starmer’s ministry, and is acceptable to counsel President-elect Trump connected however to betterment and marque savings for the US national government.

Ministers are facing increasing choler from farmers astir the inheritance taxation reforms which the Chancellor announced successful the Budget.

A “mass lobby” of MPs organised by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) volition instrumentality spot successful Westminster connected Tuesday, alongside a abstracted protestation which thousands are expected to join.

They are informing much farmers volition beryllium affected by changes to taxation alleviation connected their spot and onshore than the Treasury has accounted for.

Official estimates suggest lone the richest 4th of landowners volition beryllium affected, but the NFU and others accidental reforms to inheritance taxation alleviation could resistance much farmers into paying extra.