Daisy Cooper

I could not agree more. My right hon. Friend chairs the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee—a Labour-majority Select Committee—and he has navigated that issue so well over the last year. I say on the parliamentary record: all credit to him for his sterling efforts to draw attention to the issue. If there had been any justification at all for the APR and BPR changes, it would have been that the Government were trying to crack down on loopholes, but as my hon. Friends have said, that has not happened as a result of these changes. The Prime Minister in effect admitted in front of the Liaison Committee yesterday that the Government were not even trying to do that. We all know that the measures will cause damage. Farming communities know it; Liberal Democrats know it; and Labour-majority Select Committees know it. This is just another short-term Treasury tax grab. Family businesses will be hit, too—the very businesses that support their employees through thick and thin; the very employers who provide employment in every corner of the country; the very family businesses that help the economy bounce back strongly after a crisis, giving our economy resilience. Why would a Government want to target our family businesses?