We’ve been shafted by Labour, blasts Jeremy Clarkson as farmers slam Budget and warn of food shortages

FUMING farmers say Chancellor Rachel Reeves is risking food shortages and strikes with her Budget tax raid on their land.

Agricultural workers threatened to down tools as they railed against a new 20 per cent inheritance levy slapped on farms and equipment worth over £1million.

“At the moment, you can have some of the wealthiest landowners, not farmers, in this country who pay no inheritance tax, while middle class families do.

“That is not right, and that’s why we’ve closed that loophole.”

Ms Reeves was also blasted for imposing 20 per cent inheritance tax on previously-exempt family-run firms worth over £1million.

Levy relief for multi-generational businesses was introduced by Labour in the 1970s.

Funeral director Charlie Field, whose business employs 300 people and dates back 300 years, told The Sun the tax could be a “final nail in the coffin”.

He said: “The Chancellor’s ill-thought-out intervention in the Budget could spell the death of multi-generation businesses, including my own.”

Neil Davey, boss of the Family Business UK group said he had spent months warning the Treasury removing relief for ancestral businesses would be devastating.

Farmers have been shafted by Labour

Jeremy Clarkson

He said: “Inheritance tax reliefs are not loopholes.

“They ensure businesses and farms do not have to be broken up on the death of the owner, to the detriment of all the remaining employees, suppliers, customers and investors.”

Ex-Labour Chancellor Ed Balls yesterday said: “It’s one of those things where you just wonder, ‘Has the Treasury really thought through all the hard cases?’”.

Tom Bradshaw, of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “Just because a farm is valuable as an asset it doesn’t mean those who work it are wealthy.”

Shadow Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said: “Labour has introduced a family farm tax without considering the life-changing impact.”

PM Sir Keir Starmer told the NFU conference just last year: “Every day seems to bring a new existential threat to British farming.

“You deserve better.”