John Cooper

Nothing illustrates the great divide between rural Britain and this urban-centric Labour Government quite like the family farm tax. This was a comprehensive failure to grasp how intergenerational farming works and a wilful failure to understand that asset-rich does not equate to cash-rich, as evidenced by the hon. Member for Tipton and Wednesbury (Antonia Bance), who is sadly not in her place. A chill was sent through rural Dumfries and Galloway by changes to agricultural property relief, for this was not just about farmers but the wider community and the many jobs intertwined with dairy and beef, pigs and sheep, arable and horticulture. Since my election to this place, I have seen military veterans—some of the toughest people I have ever had the privilege to meet—well up, recalling comrades lost and maimed in the service of this country, and a woman in tears because duff pension advice had robbed her. I have had farmers weeping, too—men in their 80s, with hard knocks enough for many lifetimes under their belts. Those proud old men were crying not for themselves and what they thought they might lose in what little time lay ahead, but about what future generations would lose. Many families realise that no child will now take on the stark new financial reality of farming. How incredible was it to sit in this place and watch Ministers giving advice on how to mitigate the damage their own policies were doing? Labour likes to roar about the 14 years we Conservatives had in power, but what were they doing in their 14 years in opposition? Clearly precious little proper planning, because the inheritance tax changes, which were so toxic that no one else would touch them, were dusted off in jig time amid a scramble to be seen to be doing something—anything—in that first 100 days. Inheritance tax is invidious in all its forms: it is the state exacting a last drop from estates, which is gathered despite the taxman’s previous depredations. It is double taxation, for anything in the purview of His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs on death has already come through the storm of income tax, capital gains tax and VAT. That is why we Conservatives have pledged to reverse the cuts to agricultural property relief, abolish inheritance tax on the family home and raise the individual threshold to £500,000. That would mean that a couple could pass on their main home to direct descendants free from inheritance tax, plus a further £1 million without any inheritance tax liability.