Labour defending and supporting 'hard-working' farmers, MP claims: 'Backbone of this country!'

The comments come as the Government faces criticism over proposed reforms to Business Property Relief and Agricultural Property Relief, affecting how farms can be passed between generations.

Conservative figures have warned of the potentially "devastating" impacts on the rural economy from the proposed changes.

Speaking on GB News, he said: “Well, the point is, it's the Labour government that's on the side of hard-working farmers.

“I did the Defra brief for a year and a half in opposition, and I met hundreds of farmers up and down this country that are the backbone of this country. They give us food security, and they make sure that the shelves are stocked in the supermarket.

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“But this measure is about making sure that there is fairness in the system. We've got an inheritance here, public services are absolutely on their knees. Think about the NHS. People have to wait.

“That's a real issue, and we'll take no lectures at all from the Tories who were in government, or the Press that were propping them up.”

Speaking on Breakfast with Isabel Webster and Eamonn Holmes, he added: “Over 30 per cent of farmers aren't landowners at all. They're tenant farmers. Over 70 per cent of farmers who are landowners won't pay a single penny in inheritance tax.

“We need to get this into perspective here. Labour is on the side of hard-working farmers. But farmers live in communities. They use the NHS, they rely on the police services.

“And to speak to the number of farmers who will say they are the victim of rural crime and when they pick up the phone to the police, nobody turns up, we have to rebuild public services from the ground up, and everybody across the country, including those in rural communities will be the beneficiaries of that investment.”

Asked if he was saying that farmers do not contribute to funding public services, he said: “I said exactly the opposite. I said they do contribute.

“They make sure that we have food security. They make sure there's food on the shelves in the supermarket. And they are the backbone of this country. They are the hardest working people.

“But there's got to be fairness in the system and an exemption for farmers in the way that was there before, for the landowner farmers, that the highest value farms, not for their everyday farm, not for the tenant farmers, not for over 70 per cent of farmers, for the few at the top. That's what this is about."

“To say that this is somehow Labour is turning their backs on the farmers is absolutely for the birds.

“It's Labour that's defending the farmers. It's Labour that's sticking up for the farmers interest, and it's Labour that's building the long-term security of public services with the benefit of every community, including rural communities.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is set to warn of "devastating" consequences from Labour's proposed changes at today's Business Property Relief Summit in London.

She will tell attendees at the London Palladium that Labour has "unleashed the worst raid on family business in living memory."