Dr Neil Hudson, Shadow DEFRA Minister and Epping Forest MP, this week voted with his Conservative MP colleagues against the destructive Family Farm Tax that Labour are imposing on farming communities.
Despite Labour previously promising to protect farmers, under Government proposals, more than 75 per cent of farms across the country will be hit by new inheritance tax laws. They will be devastating for family farms and pose a serious risk to domestic food security and food prices. Labour and Keir Starmer do not have a plan to get a grip on the public finances and are now punishing farmers because of their failures.
As a Shadow DEFRA Minister, Dr Hudson has repeatedly worked as part of the Shadow DEFRA team to push the Government to reverse this damaging tax. In fact, he used his very first opportunity as a Shadow DEFRA Minister to urge the Government to reverse it.
In the run-up to the Budget, Dr Hudson and the Shadow DEFRA team were clear that Labour’s policies have created a Food and Farming Emergency, bringing together farmers and food producers to a summit hosted by Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch to discuss the measures needed to save food producers and farmers, including the reversal of the Family Farm Tax. Following the summit, the Shadow DEFRA team wrote to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Emma Reynolds calling for the abolition of the Family Farm Tax and other measures to save farmers and food producers.
Dr Hudson also joined farmers at their rally on the day of this year’s Autumn Budget to show their clear support for farmers who wanted to make their voices clear in calling for the Family Farm Tax to be scrapped as a matter of urgency.
Conservatives will continue to campaign to get Labour to scrap the Family Farm and Business tax that will damage British Farming and Family Businesses.
Dr Neil Hudson, Shadow DEFRA Minister and Epping Forest MP said:
“This week in the Commons I joined my fellow Conservatives MPs to vote to axe the Family Farm and Business Tax and protect British farming.
Food security is national security. We simply cannot afford to be putting it at risk, along with the mental health and wellbeing of our farmers, with this ill-judged and heartless tax that will have a devastating impact on our hard-working farming sector if it goes ahead.
I will absolutely continue to do everything I can with my colleagues in Shadow DEFRA to get the Government to reverse this disastrous policy as a matter of urgency.”
Commenting, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Victoria Atkins said:
“The Family Farm and Business Tax has been imposed by a Labour Government that has no understanding of rural life or the importance of family farms. We voted to scrap this tax and will continue to campaign to stop it.
“Labour have voted to push British Farming into a food and farming emergency with their Family Farm and Business Tax and their other farming failures. They should be ashamed they did not join us to stop vote against the Family Farm and Business Tax.
“Conservatives are on the side of rural communities and will axe Labour's Family Farm and Business Tax at the first opportunity. The farmers who work long hours to serve us food every day deserve better.”
