Labour's cruel and callous farm tax is a death sentence to family-run businesses

Just hours after Labour announced a budget that would rip the heart out of farming communities, Labour's Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed, who was meant to stand up for farmers in this Labour Government, demanded that farmers "learn to do more with less."

When they wanted your vote, Labour said time and time again they wouldn't do this. Keir Starmer even took the unusual step of attending an NFU conference to assure farmers of a different relationship, and Labour ministers repeatedly promised this change was not on the table.

And yet when Rachel Reeves stood up to deliver Labour's first budget, there it was-a farm tax that will snatch a chunk of the family farm away in an inheritance tax grab and hand it to Labour.

Mr Reed backed it without considering the life-changing impact this cruel measure will have. Not just on farmers but on rural communities as a whole and the food security of this entire country.

Mr Reed, whose constituency is in London (a place not exactly famed for its thriving rural lifestyle), had the cheek to cheer on a budget that will tear apart the family farms which act as custodians of our countryside in the process. It's a move that's as callous as it is foolhardy.

In short, Labour's Halloween Horror show budget removes the agricultural property relief. For those working a farm, that means taxing 20 per cent of the value of your farm, home, land and business - over the 'threshold' upon it being inherited.

Farmers who toil their entire lives to build and maintain a farm and dream of passing it on to the next generation have seen that dream shattered.

For tenant farmers, it's practically a death sentence to their business. Restricting the amount of land available, and cutting off one of the best ways for younger farmers to get their first step into this way of life.

And with it goes any prospect of shoring up our country's food security. Because "No Farmers, No Food" isn't just a slogan, it's a fact. It shouldn't need to be said - we know it, but perhaps our metro minister, Steve Reed, needs reminding.

After the Energy Secretary removed prime farmland for solar farms, the transport secretary hiked rural bus fares, and the Prime Minister ignored rural communities over huge pylons, the Chancellor is the latest to walk over a weak minister unwilling to speak up for e farmers around the Cabinet table.

Just months ago, Britons were promised that there would be no more taxes on working people when Labour took the reins. Yet here we are.

Labour, presumably thinking farmers don't count as working people, are tearing through rural communities, and in doing so, they could force farmers to sell up.

They either don't understand the impact of this policy. Or they simply don't care.