Imagine the fury in farmhouses across the country when news broke last week that Labour is pushing ahead with plans that would allow land to be seized at rock-bottom prices, stripping away what’s known as ‘hope value’.
Labour is also granting Natural England the power to compulsorily purchase farmland to create nature reserves.
Meanwhile, City Steve the Croydon based MP who now runs DEFRA cut the Sustainable Farming Incentive, funding that supported sustainable food production.
They gave farmers just a few hours' notice. Many had spent months on their applications and were unable to submit, having previously been told they’d have 6 weeks’ notice if funding was cut.
A farmer in Devon put it bluntly to me over the weekend: “If you own land under this government, you might well be renting it from the state in a few years.”
This is nothing short of a land grab. A deliberate assault on property rights, targeting the very people who work from dawn till dusk to feed this country.
Labour has wrapped it up in the language of ‘fairness’ and ‘planning reform,’ but farmers know exactly what it means. It will mean being forced to sell your home, your business for fraction of the value, and having no choice in the matter.
There is no national security without food security. Rationing is still within living memory, and under Labour, we could be heading straight back there.
Farmland is what stands between this country and reliance on expensive, imported food from places with lower welfare and environmental standards.
Hanlon’s Razor often comes to mind when thinking about government: ‘Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.’
Defra Secretary Steve Reed has doubled down on the farm tax, refusing to apologise for any concern it may caused Getty/HoCWhen a Trident nuclear missile failed to launch a few years ago, that secret should have stayed within the submarine crew and a handful of intelligence officials, but it leaked within days. Nothing truly remains secret.
Before the election I warned the National Farmers Union that Labour would not hold to its promises not to introduce the Family Farm Tax, that water quality would be a higher priority than protecting farm incomes.
I had assumed it would an unintended consequence of their mismanagement - not a deliberate objective.
But Keir Starmer’s actions, again and again have shown this isn’t mere incompetence. This is a deliberate, targeted attack on farming and rural communities. Labour is not merely ignorant of rural life; they are actively undermining it.
The removal of ‘hope value’ in land sales means that when compulsory purchases happen, farmers will be forced to sell their land for agricultural value only.
In plain terms, not only would a farmer lose their home and their livelihood, but the state could buy land at farmland prices, then sell it on for a vastly higher sum after planning changes.
It’s a transfer of wealth from hard-working farmers to government and developers. And let’s not forget, this policy is being championed by a party whose leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has already shown contempt for rural Britain, by introducing the Family Farm Tax, cutting support for rural councils, and increasing business rates on our village pubs.
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Labour MP Steve Witherden (left) broke ranks and attacked Labour's farm tax plans that were later defended by Treasury minister Torsten Bell (right)
HoC/GettyLabour is dreadful, but the Liberal Democrats are no better. When the Conservatives put forward an amendment to block the new Business and Family Farm Taxes, the Lib Dems didn’t even bother to show up!
We should have seen this coming. Back in 2019, Labour commissioned a report co-authored by George Monbiot and others, which laid out a radical vision for land reform.
It called for increased state intervention in landownership, higher taxes on property and farmland, restrictions on private land sales, and greater government control over rural land use.
The report also promoted measures that would reduce livestock farming and expand public access to privately owned farmland.
Now, we’re watching that plan unfold in real time.
This government has underestimated the strength of feeling in rural Britain. No farmers, no food, no future. That message is getting louder.
And Labour would do well to listen before they destroy what little credibility they have left in the countryside.
