Economist sparks fury as he suggest UK farmers are 'well off' : 'They make a pittance?!'

The controversial changes will see farms worth more than £1million face a 20 per cent inheritance tax bill, where they were previously exempt.

In a heated exchange with GB News presenter Martin Daubney, Portes faced pushback over his assessment of the farming situation.

Portes said: "Of course, they're always going to be hard cases. They're hard cases in almost any tax policy and frankly, in all the tax and benefit policies that I've ever had anything to do with, there are people who are a lot worse off than the people we're talking about here."

Martin responded: "But, Jonathan, I spoke to numerous farmers who say a million pound is easily breached simply with the buildings, with the equipment, with the livestock, let alone the land.

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"It's a tax break specifically to ensure that farms aren't broken up and they can stay in family ownership to provide food sovereignty for the nation, it is not the same as dodging inheritance tax. Farmers are special people who surely deserve our protection."

Firing back, Portes said: "Farmers do indeed get a lot of protection. Remember farmers they're far more subsidized than any other."

Martin fumed back: "They make a pittance."

Portes responded: "Remember when you talk about small family farms, you also talk about people like James Dyson and Jeremy Clarkson."

Martin said: "That is a tiny minority of farmers, a huge amount of farmers I speak to struggle on less than minimum wages because they're screwed to the floor by suppliers, and now they see this as the cruellest tax."

Farming leaders have warned of widespread distress in rural communities, with NFU President Tom Bradshaw describing "feelings of anger, betrayal and despair" among farming families.

The Government maintains that the "vast majority of farmers" will be unaffected by the changes, which are aimed at stopping wealthy individuals from using agricultural land to avoid inheritance tax.

Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has seized on the issue, stating: "An attack on farming is an attack on Great Britain. Our farmers are the backbone of this nation."

The NFU has highlighted existing pressures on farmers' mental health, with a 2021 survey showing over a third of the farming community had experienced depression.

Tom Bradshaw of the NFU noted that "the vast majority of the people who'll bear the brunt of this family farm tax aren't wealthy people with huge cash reserves hidden away".