Rural voters may turn their backs on Labour (Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
During this year’s general election the Labour Party successfully targeted rural areas with promises to support farmers and respect the concerns of people who live in the countryside. It worked, and they now have over 100 MPs representing rural seats, many of which are amongst their most marginal.
On the campaign trail the then Shadow Environment Secretary, Steve Reed, said that Labour had ‘no plans to change’ Agricultural Property Relief. Yet in office such assurances were quickly forgotten, with their first budget setting out plans to levy inheritance tax on thousands of family farms by doing exactly that. And so far, the promise of a ‘new deal for farmers’ appears to mean being asked to ‘do more with less’ in the face of higher taxes on jobs, fertiliser, and pickup trucks.
These policy changes will make it harder for farm businesses to survive, reduce the amount of land farmed, and see family farms broken up instead of being passed on to the next generation. Labour may have been quick to repeat the mantra that food security is an essential part of national security, but their actions will see food prices rise and make the UK increasingly dependent on imports.
Whether it has been a deliberate decision to target farmers, or a mistake as a result of an urban-focused leadership, the furious response should be ringing alarm bells. One only needs to look to Europe to see how farmers have a significant potential to influence politics. In the UK they are one of the most valued professions, ranking only second to nurses according to a recent poll, with a position at the heart of rural communities both economically and culturally.
Continuing to press ahead with tax rises targeted at farmers is unwise. It not only risks alienating them, but will make other rural voters who had been willing to believe the assurances that Labour gave them before the election increasingly cynical. The Conservative Party has energetically taken up its role in opposition here, with Kemi Badenoch committing to reverse the changes to Agricultural Property Relief, and now has a real opportunity to rebuild its traditional rural support base.
The next general election is still a long time away, but this early blunder could prove to be a costly one for Labour, and especially its cohort of new rural MPs.
Iain Carter is a former Conservative Party Political Director who has also served as a Special Adviser in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.