Cumbrian Labour MP votes against inheritance tax plan for farmers

Cumbrian Labour MP Breaks Ranks to Vote Against Party’s Farm Inheritance Tax Plan
A Cumbrian Labour MP has defied his party by voting against plans to impose inheritance tax on farms valued at more than £1 million.
Markus Campbell-Savours, MP for Penrith and Solway, spoke in the House of Commons last night ahead of the vote. He said he had consistently raised concerns about the policy and had previously given farmers his word that agricultural property relief would not be changed.
“In last year’s Opposition Day Debate on Farming and Inheritance Tax, I set out my concerns,” he told MPs.
“Over the course of a debate that has raged for more than a year, members across the House have made the case against these changes. Changes which leave many, not least elderly farmers yet to make arrangements to transfer assets, devastated at the impact on their family farms.”
He added that he could not return to his constituency having broken his promise to farmers.
“When the good people of Penrith and Solway decide my time here is up, I intend to walk around my community knowing I did all I could for them. But I cannot do that knowing that my constituency’s 1,665 farms, the farm workers and the supply chains that depend on them were let down. Knowing that I broke my word.”
Campbell-Savours was the only Labour MP in the country to vote against the measure.
Cumbria’s other Labour MPs Josh MacAlister (Whitehaven and Workington), Julie Minns (Carlisle) and Michelle Scrogham (Barrow and Furness) voted in favour.
Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, also voted against, while Labour MP Lizzi Collinge (Morecambe and Lunesdale) abstained.
The National Farmers Union had urged Labour MPs to abstain. Campbell-Savours said many of his farming constituents emailed him with the same request, but he chose to oppose the plan outright.
The Government’s proposals were approved by a majority of MPs, with 322 voting in favour and 181 voting against.
The MP said earlier that farmers had long feared changes to agricultural property relief. Some had transferred assets ahead of the election, while others sought reassurance from Labour candidates based on public commitments from the then Shadow DEFRA Secretary that APR would remain untouched.
“I was one of those Labour candidates. And it is for that reason I will be voting against the budget resolution enabling these changes,” he said.
“I gave my word and I intend to keep it.”