Boris Johnson has hit out at Labour’s “absolutely mad” farm inheritance tax raid.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her first Budget that inheritance tax relief for farming farms would be limited to agricultural assets up to £1million.
But the measure has sparked fury among the farming community.
The former PM told GB News: “It’s a really dumb thing to do. We are struggling to keep people on the land, to make sure that farmers are incentivised to hand over their business to their descendants.
“I think it’s mad. I think it’s absolutely mad. I don’t know why they’ve done it.”
Inheritance tax relief allows farmers to pass on their land and property tax-free to their families, either within their lifetimes or in their will.
But at the Budget, the Chancellor announced the 100% relief for family farms would be limited to only the first £1million of combined agricultural and business property.
For anything above that, landowners will pay a 20% tax rate, rather than the standard 40% rate of inheritance tax applied to other land and property.
The move has caused uproar among farmers, unions and opposition parties.