Keir Starmer may change the Government's stance on the farm inheritance tax, it has been suggested. (Image: Getty)

       Sir Keir Starmer is “looking for a way out” of Rachel Reeves' farm tax as it could be “tweaked”, a former Labour insider has said. Alastair Campbell, Sir Tony Blair’s press chief in No. 10, said he has talked with MPs who are “frustrated” and “don’t feel they’re being listened to” by the Prime Minister and Chancellor. Mo Metcalf-Fisher, director of external affairs at the Countryside Alliance, told the Express reported opposition “means it’s becoming incredibly difficult to find anyone that agrees” with the revenue-raising strategy, and a “breakdown” is “unsustainable and politically disastrous”.

       Mr Campbell said during yesterday’s edition of the Rest is Politics podcast that Sir Keir promised before last year’s General Election that he would “protect the family farm.” “Well, this, to some extent, goes against that,” he added. “Politics on this could come into play. There’s no way they’ve given up on rural seats because if they give up on rural seats, they’re giving up a large chunk of the majority they’re defending.

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       Alastair Campbell says he has been talking with Labour MPs (Image: Getty)

       “I still think, I said this on week one, I still think this can and will be tweaked at some point. I think the question really is when and how. But right now, the Government doesn’t seem to want to know.”

       Mr Metcalf-Fisher said: “Opposition within the Labour Party continues to grow against the family farm tax and it’s becoming incredibly difficult to find anyone that agrees with it.

       “Labour MPs representing rural constituencies- of which there are over 100- are understandably under a lot of pressure to represent their constituents by warning the Chancellor against the proposals before it’s too late.

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       “There needs to be a complete reset between countryside and Government. The current breakdown is unsustainable and politically disastrous.”

       He highlighted the National Farmers Union’s (NFU) insistence that a “clawback” mechanism should be introduced.

       This would mean, the inheritance levy was only applied to qualifying assets (those currently eligible for both APR and BPR) if they are disposed of within a seven-year period after death, resulting in tax only being paid “when the finance is available to do so, in keeping with sound principles of taxation”.

       The NFU added: “Applying a clawback would maintain the ongoing day-to-day operations of businesses after a death while disincentivising the use of IHT reliefs as a tax avoidance measure.

       “Importantly, it would still allow the Exchequer to raise the revenue it needs. Such clawback mechanisms are used in many other European countries.”

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       The Government is facing a prolonged backlash to its plan. (Image: Getty)

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       Mr Campbell said: “If you talk to the NFU, as you have done, and as others in my circle have done, Rory, their analysis is that the Government said 27% of farms would be impacted by this.

       “The NFU put the figure at 75%, because what they say the Government isn’t doing, is making a distinction between working farmers, people who work the land, and what you might call lifestyle farmers, people who have lots of land because they want to own lots of land.

       “And so when you then get into the kind of profit margins that these guys are operating at, and this is something my family members have complained about for most of their farming careers, is that they’re saying that the tax change resulting from a million-pound threshold would pretty much wipe out the returns that they get, which are already very, very thin.”

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       He added: “They think the Government is looking for a way out of this. They’re looking for a way out that doesn’t necessarily present itself as a terrible climb down.”

       He added: “I don’t think there’s a problem in governments changing their minds. I wouldn’t worry about Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch have been out on these rallies for farmers or whatever.

       “I think if they get to the point of thinking this hasn’t quite worked out as we planned, there’s no harm to my mind of saying we need to tweak it.”