Environment minister Steve Reed (Image: Getty)
A Labour minister has taken a five-word swipe at farmers in a furious inheritance tax row.
There has been huge backlash against the government’s decision to scrap the inheritance tax exemption for agricultural businesses and assets worth more than ￡1 million, with furious protestors taking to the streets both in the capital and across the country.
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But today in the Commons the Environment Secretary Steve Reed defended the changes that were announced in the Budget against his Tory counterpart Victoria Atkins.
And Mr Reed gave a controversial five-word statement that farmers are “in it for the money” arguing that they are “businesses that need to make a profit”.
He went on to say that Atkins was “posturing” about the risk of farmer suicides due to the changes, after she said “not everyone will be able to celebrate Christmas” this year.
READ MORE: The five biggest promises broken by Labour after just five months in power
Shadow environment minister Victoria Atkins (Image: Getty)
In the Commons, Atkins had referred to a farmer thought to have committed suicide “because he feared becoming a financial burden to his family because of changes to inheritance tax”.
She said: “This is the human cost of the figures that the Secretary of State provides so casually. What does the Secretary of State say to that grieving family?”
Reed replied: "I send my heartfelt sympathies to that family but I think it is irresponsible in the extreme to seek to weaponise a personal tragedy of that kind in this way.
“Where there is mental ill health then there needs to be support for that, and this Government is investing in it."
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He went on to say that "the vast majority of claimants" will pay "absolutely nothing" following the changes. Reed also said that 12,000 farms had gone bust under the Conservative administration.
In another part of the exchanges, Reed told MPs: “The shadow secretary of state, as well as the former prime minister, keep telling farmers they're not in it for the money. We know that they are.
“They're businesses that need to make a profit, and our new deal for farmers, including increasing supply chain fairness is intended to make farms profitable and successful for the future, in a way that they were not under the previous government.”
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Dozens of rural Labour MPs betray local farmers with vote in favour of the tractor tax
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There has been ongoing protests by farmers from across the country, with thousands descending on London and blocking roads with their tractors.
Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch has warned Britain will “never be the same again” if the country loses farmers because of Rachel Reeves’s inheritance tax raid.
The Tories have now taken a petition demanding ministers axe the family farm tax to the Government’s doorstep.