Newslinks for Wednesday 23rd December 2025 | Conservative Home

Starmer’s humiliating U-turn on farm tax, but Tories say it doesn’t go far enough

“Farmers and MPs have warned the “fight is not finished” following Keir Starmer’s climbdown on Labour’s “cruel and immoral” inheritance tax raid. The Government watered down Rachel Reeves’s tax grab against farmers in a surprise U-turn on Tuesday following intense backlash from rural communities. The threshold for the amount of agricultural assets that can be passed on without paying inheritance tax (IHT) will rise from £1 million to £2.5 million. Meanwhile the son of a farmer who took own life said the changers are the “best Christmas present”. This is a partial victory for the Daily Express’s Save Britain’s Family Farms crusade which demanded the Chancellor U-turns on her tax raid announced at last year’s Budget. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK have said they will continue to push for the complete abolition of IHT on family farms, saying even the new threshold is not good enough and remains unfair. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch insisted the “fight is not finished” following 14 months of regular protests by farmers outside Parliament. She said: “This is a huge U-turn by the government and a big win for the Conservative Party’s campaign against Labour’s Family Farm Tax. Earlier this year, I was told to drop our campaign, that there weren’t many votes in it, there weren’t many farmers, and people assumed they were wealthy enough to cope anyway. I ignored the advice and kept campaigning. The Family Farm Tax is cruel, immoral and will not raise any money because farmers will stop farming. It would have pushed farms to the brink, damaged our food supply, and hurt the people who work long hours to feed the country.” – Daily Express

• Keir Starmer relaxes inheritance tax raid on farmers – The Times
• Labour waters down farmers inheritance tax raid after months of furious protests led by Jeremy Clarkson – The Sun
• Ministers raise inheritance tax threshold for farms after backlash – The Guardian
• Why Starmer finally folded on farmers’ IHT – Daily Telegraph
• Labour sows discord with another belated U-turn on farmers’ tax – The Times

Comment:

• Labour has created utter misery for farmers – this single, chilling question proves it –  Victoria Atkins, Daily Express
• Labour must go further and abandon this cruel tax completely – Tom Bradshaw, Daily Telegraph
• Feeble inheritance tax U-turn for farmers proves PM’s pandering to backbenches – Claire Ellicott, Daily Mail
• Keir Starmer’s finished – and his latest £1.5m U-turn won’t save him – Christian Calgie, Daily Express
• Farmers like me took on Labour’s cruel inheritance tax raid – and won – Tom Bradshaw, The Independent
• Keir Starmer fears toxic ‘war on countryside’ label amid fight with farmers – Mo Metcalf-Fisher, Daily Express
• Inheritance tax U-turn shows how enfeebled the Chancellor has become – Alex Brummer, Daily Mail
• Michel Houellebecq was right. Rural France has been betrayed – Britain must not go the same way – James Jeffrey, Daily Telegraph

Starmer to push Britain into stricter net zero targets – Tories accuse Labour of surrendering energy system to Brussels

“Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to tie Britain to the EU’s net zero plans in a move that would impose radically stricter clean energy targets on homes and businesses. The Prime Minister and Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, are negotiating for Britain to rejoin the EU’s internal electricity market, which treats the 27 countries of the EU and Norway as a single borderless power grid. The EU will only let Britain back into the system if Sir Keir agrees to the bloc’s ambitious targets for renewable energy, which would require the UK to decarbonise not just electricity but also heating and transport rapidly. In practice, it would mean net zero targets would need to be doubled. Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, accused the Prime Minister of “surrendering control of our energy system to bureaucrats in Brussels”. She said: “UK ministers will be forced to reduce emissions regardless of what it will do to people’s energy bills or the competitiveness of our businesses.” The EU’s demands emerged in a document placed without fanfare on the Cabinet Office website. The plan is both technically challenging and politically sensitive because it would make UK energy policy subject to EU jurisdiction.” – Daily Telegraph

• Top Net Zero boss says Brits are focusing too much on how high their energy bills are – Daily Express
• Too much focus on expensive bills, says energy boss – The Times
• Fury as ‘secret courts’ hand out warrants for energy firms to break into homes – The Standard

Labour MPs banned from more than 1,000 pubs in mass protest

“More than 1,000 pubs have now banned Labour MPs from being served, as part of a mass protest against tax hikes threatening their survival. These now include three of Rachel Reeves’s own local pubs, who have said they will refuse her entry over the Christmas period. Dorset publican Andy Lennox, who is organising the campaign, said that if a Labour MP attempted to buy a pint from him he would demand they “go back and don’t come” in. He blasted: “We’ve done enough talking. We’ve had letters hand-delivered to the chancellor. We’ve told the chancellor what we need. We need an emergency VAT cut to 13 per cent now. Until that happens, this is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. The vast majority of everybody I know is either going bust, struggling, or on their last leg”. Jeremy Clarkson joined the campaign last week, barring entrance for any Labour MPs from his famous Farmer’s Dog establishment in the Cotswolds. He posted: “To be clear, I have banned all Labour MPs from my pub, except one: Markus Campbell-Savours. He’s welcome any time. And not just because the Labour Party has now sacked him.” Mr Campbell-Savours lost the Labour whip last week for rebelling against Rachel Reeves’s Family Farms Tax. Pubs are facing an onslaught of costs, from the rises in minimum wage, VAT, alcohol duty and the latest eye-watering business rates reevaluation.” – Daily Express

• Reeves’s budget tax rises ‘a pub destroyer’, say landlords – Sky News
• Rachel Reeves faces Labour revolt over pubs being hammered by huge increases in business rates – The Standard

Comment:

• Labour is living in a fool’s paradise if it thinks it has plenty of time to turn Britain around – Larry Elliott, The Guardian

News in brief:

• Is this finally the end of non-crime hate incidents? – Andrew Tettenborn, The Spectator
• Labour’s inheritance tax U-turn is a hollow victory for farmers – Adam James Pollock, UnHerd
• Why the Government won’t hit its housing target – Ike Ijeh, The Critic
• Is Britain still a Christian country? – Rakib Ehsan, CityAM