Express reporter Steph Spyro shares why farmers are protesting

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       HMRC has been greeted with fury after it handed its ‘expert of the year’ award to the civil servant behind the hated Family Farms Tax. James Mee, the head of inheritance tax analysis, boasted about his gong on Linkedin, saying he was “proud and humbled” to win it last month.

       Mr Mee added: “This was for my work in providing ministers with the analysis they needed to announce several major IHT reforms at last year’s Autumn Budget, including restricting agricultural and business property reliefs.” Those changes, announced by Rachel Reeves in her first Budget last year, saw hundreds of thousands of farming families plunged into financial uncertainty and facing the prospect of losing their livelihoods. The policy sparked furious backlash, including repeated mass protests that shut down Whitehall, as farmers warned the Chancellor they would be forced to sell their farms in order to pay off the new inheritance tax levy.

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       James Mee was handed the award by HMRC (Image: Getty / James Mee Linkedin)

       Mr Mee, who grew up in rural Suffolk and was the childhood best friend of Ed Sheeran, was warmly congratulated on his award by fellow Mandarins and Bank of England officials, who took to Linkedin to pat him on the back.

       Among them was Stephen Farrington, director of Fiscal Policy at the Treasury and former Chief of Staff at the OBR, who wrote: “Congratulations James!”

       However the award was greeted with backlash by the Tories and farming campaign groups, after a year of hurt.

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       John Glen, a former Treasury minister, explained: “Officials advise and Ministers decide, but I am not sure I would be celebrating failing to convey the uncertainty around the tax revenue, the negative impact on the rural economy and farmers’ futures.

       “In every fiscal event I was exposed to this option was laid on the table - we said ‘No thank you’ - James was the lucky official who found Labour in charge and farmers low down on their priority list.”

       Former minister John Glenn criticised the award (Image: Getty)

       Robbie Moore MP, Shadow Farming Minister said: “You literally couldn’t make it up. To boast about receiving an award for a policy recommendation which is literally widely accepted as being catastrophic for our many family farming businesses and indeed all family businesses is either pure arrogance or stupidity.

       “Farming bodies and family business representatives explained within days of the policy being announced last October the disastrous cost the IHT changes will have, but instead of listening, engaging or even recognising the concerns, HMRC choose to award sheer incompetence instead.

       “HMRC should spend less time handing out awards and more time speaking to people in the real world. The government really hasn’t got a clue.”

       Mo Metcalf-Fisher, head of external affairs at the Countryside Alliance, fumed: “As experts warn, the family farm tax will be a disaster for agriculture and the countryside and few have been bold enough to openly defend the policy publicly, yet alone celebrate it.”

       “There is a deep and growing divide between rural communities and Westminster, largely due to the architects of policy that seek to do things to the countryside, rather than for it.”

       Jonathan Roberts of the Country Land and Business Association blasted: “We congratulate James on his award. To celebrate, I would like to invite him to visit one of the 70,000 farm businesses expected to be permanently damaged by this policy.

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       “Once there, I would be happy to introduce him to some of the 200,000 workers across the family business sector who will lose their job.”

       An HMRC spokesman said: “It is the duty of civil servants to support the Government of the day to develop and implement its policies as effectively as possible.

       “The award was presented in recognition of expertise in providing important analysis to ministers.”

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