A controversial so-called family faming tax bill, condemned as cruel has been opposed by West Devon Conservative MPs.

Conservative MPs voted against the so-called ‘family farm and business tax’ which they claim will harm small-scale family farming and reduce the UK’s ability to produce its own food.

They claim the new inheritance tax laws will damage the futures of more than 75 per cent of farms across the country, making them uneconomic.

However, despite the Conservative vote, the Labour Party successfully voted to implement its family farm and business tax on Tuesday, December 16.

Currently, farmland is exempt from inheritance tax under a policy called agricultural property relief (APR). In the Budget, the Chancellor announced that she will end that exemption by restricting APR.

The cut to APR will mean that from April 2026, a tax of 20 per cent will apply to agricultural assets over £1 million. Because of the existing tax-free threshold for inheritance tax, two parents leaving a farm to their children could potentially limit the tax to assets over £3 million.

The Chancellor says this change will raise money for public services. However, with increasing food prices and farm closures, opponents of the inheritance say British farmers should be supported and not hit by the family farm tax.

The Conservatives have been campaigning to stop the family farm tax and voted against the finance bill which includes implementing the new farming tax.

However, Labour voted for the finance bill, meaning that the family farm tax will proceed to the next stage of implementation.

Rebecca Smith, Conservative MP for South West Devon, said: “Labour’s political choice to target farmers is a cruel blow to the industry and that Labour must do the right thing and not implement the family farm tax.

“I joined fellow Conservative MPs to stop the family farm and business tax and protect hundreds of thousands of farmers, their families and communities like in South West Devon.

“Labour must U-turn so the hard-working farmers in South West Devon and around the country can continue to produce the food we eat three times a day. Or they will destroy the farming industry.”

Victoria Atkins, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “The family farm and business tax has been imposed by a Labour Government that has no understanding of rural life or the importance of family farms. Farmers who work long hours to serve us food every day deserve better.”

Former arable tenant farmer Peter Clarke, who lives near Tavistock, is a vociferous opponent of the planned new tax.

He said: “The inheritance tax will penalise the small family farms, which make up most in Devon and Cornwall and especially on the uplands. If someone wants to hand over their farms to their children they will find the tax penalty will be unaffordable and make the farm unviable.

“Farmers will have to sell their farms and to non-farmers who see the only way to make money being to cover them in trees or to produce birdseed. That will mean Britain will become more reliant on imports and less resilient to international events.”