Labour has been issued a stark warning about their planned inheritance tax changes for farmers, claiming they could drive more agricultural workers into “poverty” and potentially “suicide”.
Speaking to GB News, commentator Sarah Louise Robertson condemned Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ proposed tax measures on the farming community.
On New Year’s Eve, over 4,000 farmers gloriously lit “beacons of hope” across the UK, to signify the fire is still raging against Labour’s inheritance tax raid.
The protest was organised by Herefordshire farmer Martin Williams, one of five farmers who also organised the London Farming Rally on November 19.
Sarah Louise Robertson defended the farming industry against Labour’s ‘crippling’ inheritance tax raid
X / GB News
Discussing the decision by Reeves on GB News, Robertson expressed deep concern that Labour would not listen to farmers’ objections to the planned changes.
“The farming community has never been under attack as much as it is at the moment,” she told GB News.
She also warned that the proposed tax changes would “drive more of them into poverty, drive more of them into suicide, affect their mental health more”.
Robertson highlighted alarming statistics about farmer suicides, noting that 102 agricultural workers took their own lives in 2019.
Farmers across the country lit ‘beacons of hope’ in protest of the inheritance tax raid
Farm Herefordshire, X
The commentator revealed stark figures about farmers’ financial struggles, pointing out that livestock farm workers typically earn between £9,000 and £22,000 annually.
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She also emphasised the significant debt burden facing the agricultural sector. “Most farms on average, are in £200,000 in debt,” Robertson claimed.
These existing pressures, she argued, make the farming community particularly vulnerable to any additional financial burdens. Robertson warned the tax changes could have far-reaching consequences for Britain’s agricultural sector.
She later argued that the measures would lead to the loss of more farms across the country.
“This is then going to impact on our country in terms of agricultural sustainability, our food production, everything,” she told GB News.
Robertson told GB News that the changes may drive farmers to ‘poverty or suicide’
GB News
The commentator described the proposed inheritance tax changes as “the most crippling, craziest tax that is going to hit farmers and the agricultural community so, so hard”.
Robertson went on to emphasise that the proposed tax changes would yield relatively modest returns for the government. According to the commentator, the inheritance tax measures would only raise £115million annually.
“That’s nothing in the grand scheme of things,” she told GB News.
She suggested this limited financial benefit failed to justify the potential damage to farming communities.
Robertson also argued this relatively small financial gain for the Treasury could come at a devastating cost to farming families and food production.
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