Labour’s Reading West and Mid Berkshire MP Olivia Bailey is on a list of MPs who did not vote on the Government’s plan to tax inherited farmland from April next year.
Labour’s Reading West and Mid Berkshire MP Olivia Bailey is on a list of MPs who did not vote on the Government’s plan to tax inherited farmland from April next year. She has been approached for comment on why, as a junior minister, she did not vote; ministers are usually expected to follow the party whip.
An MP may abstain or have procedural or constituency reasons for missing a vote. Eighty-six Labour MPs did not register a vote; the NFU estimates about 30 of them deliberately abstained.
Despite last-minute pleas from the NFU and others, the resolution was passed by 322 votes to 182. Just one Labour MP – Markus Campbell-Savours, the rural MP for Penrith and Solway – voted against and has been suspended. Many rural MPs expressed concern and dozens of Labour backbenchers abstained.
The vote, labelled "Budget Resolution No 50", limits agricultural and business property relief from inheritance tax and was taken as part of the Finance Bill.
Newbury’s Liberal Democrat MP Lee Dillon, Danny Kruger (Reform UK MP for East Wiltshire) and Kit Malthouse (Conservative MP for North West Hampshire) all voted against the move. Treasury minister James Murray told Parliament that taxing farm estates is a fair way to raise money for public services.
Under the plans Labour would start charging tax on inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m. Above that threshold inherited farmland would be taxed at 20 per cent — half the standard inheritance tax rate — a measure first announced at last year’s Budget and initially estimated to raise £520m a year by 2029.
The plans sparked UK-wide protests from farmers who say the change could force family farms to be sold or broken up. Mr Dillon met farmers who protested in Westminster last week and warned of the local impact.
"Over the past year, I have stood alongside farmers across Newbury and West Berkshire as they campaigned against the Government’s damaging changes to farmers’ inheritance tax – what many now call the family farm tax."
"I will continue to fight alongside our farming community, pressing the Government to reverse this policy and safeguard the future of British farming.
"Our farmers deserve better. Our rural economy deserves better. And our country deserves better."
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a "Farm First" scheme to train graduates for careers in farming, modelled on Teach First, to try to prevent what they describe as a "lost generation" in the sector.
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
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