NFU chief mocks BBC with brutal swipe after challenging Chancellor to farm tax showdown _ Hieuuk
The president of the NFU has mocked the BBC after it sided with the government’s assertion that only 500 farmers would be affected by inheritance tax changes.
The NFU chief has challenged Rachel Reeves to a face-to-face showdown (Image: Getty)
National Farmers’ Union (NFU) chief Tom Bradshaw has brutally mocked BBC Verify after it sided with the government in the row over how many farms will be affected by inheritance tax changes.
The government has repeatedly claimed that around 500 estates will be affected by the proposed changes whilst farmers unions have argued the number is in the tens of thousands.
BBC Verify said it examined the claims and re-examined them after receiving criticism but still believed that the government’s figure was the most accurate.
The announcement drew fury from famers, many of whom protested in central London this week urging the government to row back on the policy.
In a post on X as Storm Bert sweeps the country, NFU president Tom Bradshaw mocked the BBC’s coverage of the storm.
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He wrote: “Only 500 people will be trapped in their cars but the 70,000 that chose not to travel weren’t in anyway affected”.
The post echoed the views of Fellow of Agricultural Law Association Stuart Maggs who used an analogy of dropping a bollard onto the M4 to illustrate his belief that BBC Verify’s research misses the point.
He said: “By analogy, if you suddenly drop a bollard into the fast lane of the M4 a few people will crash, but vastly more will be affected.
“The newspapers the next day will talk about how thousands of drivers were affected by an incident very separately from the number of cars written off in the pile-up.”
Both agree that their definition of what “affects” a person by the introduction of the policy differs markedly from the government’s narrow view of the impact.
The NFU president has dismissed the BBC’s claims (Image: Getty)
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This week, farmers took to central London to protest against the changes (Image: Getty)
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The post comes as the NFU president called for the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to meet him to discuss the policy face to face.
Mr Bradshaw said: “All I want to do is sit down with the Chancellor and discuss a way forward but, so far, she has refused. Rest assured, the NFU will continue to push hard to stop the family farm tax; it’s cruel, it’s wrong and it risks decimating our sector.”
Up to this point, the government has stood firm on its decision to stop farmers being exempt from paying inheritance tax
This week Environment Minister Steve Reed said: “It’s hard to be sorry for trying to make this country’s economy work and our public services work again.”
A government spokesperson insisted: “Our commitment to our farmers is steadfast – we have committed £5billion to the farming budget over two years, including more money than ever for sustainable food production, and we are developing a 25-year farming roadmap, focusing on how to make the sector more profitable in the decades to come. We have been clear since this change was announced that around 500 claims of Agricultural and Business Property Relief each year will be impacted – this is based off actual claims data – and even when inheritance tax does kick in, it is effectively at half the rate paid by others.”
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