Ellie Chowns MP– why I didn’t vote against farm tax

North Herefordshire Green MP has explained why she abstained on yesterday’s vote opposing inheritance tax on larger farms.

“I do not agree fully with either the Conservative or the Labour position on this issue,” she said.

The Conservative motion, which was defeated by 339 votes to 181, “simply calls for maintenance of the status quo – even though it is widely acknowledged, including within the farming community, that there is a genuine problem of some wealthy individuals buying land simply to avoid inheritance tax”, Dr Chowns said.

“This drives up land prices and makes it harder for new entrants to farming.”

But she acknowledged that Labour’s plans “need clarification and potentially amendment” given the “worrying lack of clarity on the likely impact of the proposals on different groups”.

She will today write to Chancellor Rachel Reeves suggesting she exempt farmers over 75 from the seven-year “taper” rule on gifts to descendants as a way to help them avoid the tax.

The planned measures should also be better targeted “to deter the use of land as a tax loophole while simultaneously safeguarding small and medium-sized family farms”, she also suggested.

And land within environmental land management or other agri-environment schemes should be exempt from IHT as long as it remains so for 10 more years, she is proposing.

Dr Chowns explained that she had not attended the Commons debate on the motion as she was serving on the Environmental Audit Select Committee at the same time.

“Instead, I attended and spoke in a Westminster Hall debate on the future of farming which began later the same day,” she said.

Though her contribution to this was cut short by the calling of the division on the motion in the Commons, “I would also have called for more government support to help young farmers and new entrants to farming”, she added.

The Countryside Alliance said it was “disappointing” that no Green MPs had backed the opposition motion, or spoken in the debate.