Over 20 authorities have passed motions fighting back against Labour’s farm tax

Labour’s family farm tax has caused uproar across Britain, but there is a rebellion with serious potency underway that could stop Starmer and Reeves in their tracks.

From Cornwall to Norfolk, local authorities are passing motions demanding their MP campaigns against Labour’s damaging death duties, one of the most contentious measures in Reeves’ bombshell budget.

Chancellor Reeves slapped previously exempt farmers with 20 per cent tax on assets over £1million, a paltry threshold when land is worth up to £30,000 an acre and a combine harvester £750,000.

Cash-poor but asset-rich farmers say they will have to sell land and machinery to fund the tax, breaking up farms passing through families for generations and damaging the UK’s food security.

Experts have warned many farms will be bought by faceless mega companies from London or abroad with no interest in farming or maintaining the land as they won’t have to pay a massive inheritance tax bill every forty or so years.

The government maintains death duties are a fair and balanced way to plug the £22billion black hole, but Britain isn’t buying it.

Two massive tractor protests have gridlocked central London, but now there is a different kind of rebellion spreading across the country, one that is being led by local authorities in the form of a town hall rebellion.

As reported by the Countryside Alliance- Britain's largest rural lobby group- 22 councils have voted through motions opposing the tax hike in recent weeks, several in constituencies where Labour has newly elected MPs.

This puts fresh faced MPs in a difficult position. Support the government and their party or support their local authority and rural constituents.

In Rushcliffe, where the Labour MP James Naish overturned a previous Tory majority, the district council passed a motion demanding that he lobbies the Chancellor to drop the plans, for example.

Cllr Neil Clarke, the leader of Rushcliffe Council, warned that the changes to inheritance tax “threaten to cripple many family farms” which have “no means to pay such punitive amounts”.

Meanwhile, Jon Pearce, the Labour MP for High Peak, has been sidelined by his borough council and the local authority will be writing to the Chancellor directly to urge an about-turn.

Other town halls to pass motions expressing their dismay include Devon County Council and Norfolk County Council, where councillors hit out at the Chancellor’s “assault” on the countryside and “rural way of life”.

Cornwall, Kent, North Northamptonshire, Rutland, Somerset, Suffolk and Buckinghamshire councils also passed motions against the policy.

Mo Metcalf-Fisher of the Countryside Alliance said: “The list of councils opposing the family farm tax is growing quickly and we expect more will be signing up in the New Year.

“This is undoubtedly a challenge for those rural Labour MPs representing seats in these council areas, many of whom understandably feel like they’ve been thrown under the bus by this hated policy.”

The rebellion leaves many fresh-faced Labour MPs at loggerheads with their local authority and many of their rural constituents and with more councils set to pass motions demanding their MP oppose the policy, a grim 2025 awaits for rural Labour MPs.

LIST OF MPs REPRESENTING CONSTITUENCIES WHERE A LOCAL AUTHORITY HAS PASSED A MOTION AGAINST LABOUR’S FARM TAX

It consists of 31 Labour MPs, 22 Conservative, 16 Liberal Democrat, 2 Green and 1 Reform.

Gravesham: Lauren Sullivan (Labour) and Adam Holloway (Conservative)

Central Suffolk and North Ipswich: Patrick Spencer (Conservative)