Starmer claims BBC has backed him over inheritance tax raid on farmers

Sir Keir Starmer claims the BBC has backed him over the inheritance tax raid on farmers, prompting accusations of bias.

The broadcaster was dragged into the row over the policy as the Prime Minister faced a growing backlash from farmers, celebrities and his own MPs.

On Tuesday, more than 10,000 farmers and high-profile supporters including Jeremy Clarkson and Lord Lloyd-Webber descended on Westminster to protest against the policy, which will make farms worth more than £1 million eligible for inheritance tax.

Labour MPs have now raised concerns about the plans for the first time, urging the Government to consider making changes to protect family farms.

But tensions risk being stoked further after Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, said farmers were “wrong” about the policy and Daniel Zeichner, the rural affairs minister, said those affected could avoid the levy “with a bit of planning”.

At the protest, Clarkson accused the BBC of bias over the issue. After a heated row with Newsnight’s Victoria Derbyshire, he asked the crowd: “Since when was the BBC the mouthpiece for this infernal Government?”

Asked about the protest at a press conference in Rio, where he is attending the G20 summit, Sir Keir insisted that “the vast majority” of farmers would be unaffected.

“All of you can check out what that means in terms of the impact. I think the BBC has already done it,” he said. “It means the vast majority of farms are unaffected by this, and I think it’s just important we keep making that clear.”

The Government claims only 550 farms a year will be affected by the policy. However, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and the Country Land and Business Association estimate that 70,000 farms will be hit.

Earlier this month, the BBC Verify unit reported that, in 2021-22, just 462 inherited farms were worth more than £1 million – the new cap on agricultural property relief (APR) – out of the 209,000 farm holdings in the UK. The article also cited the claim that 70,000 farms will be affected, but adds that “it is not necessarily the right number to use”.

In a video released on Tuesday, BBC Verify stated that “70,000 is almost certainly an overestimate”. It stated that the “true share of farms affected going forward is likely to be much closer to the Treasury estimates”.

Stuart Andrew, the shadow culture secretary and Conservative MP for Daventry, said: “The job of BBC Verify is to do exactly that, but they’ve failed on their own terms.

“The Government is refusing to say how many family farms are subject to their tax raid, only offering partial and out of date statistics which fail to account for the full scale of their reforms.

“The taxpayers pay for the BBC to be independent and free from bias, not for them to regurgitate Labour lines. This matter should be immediately looked into and corrected.”

Greg Smith, the Conservative MP for Mid Buckinghamshire and the shadow minister for transport, said: “This is absolute nonsense from BBC Verify, who have clearly fallen for Labour’s false narrative by including hobby farms and non-food producing smallholdings in the numbers.

“The message I am getting from my farmers is clear as day. They own small, modest family farms and see this policy as the biggest threat they have ever encountered.”

BBC Verify has proved controversial since its introduction last year. Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, claimed the “brand” would use forensic journalists and disinformation teams to fact-check “in the pursuit of truth”.

However, its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict has drawn accusations of political bias. Baroness Stowell, the chairman of the Lords communications committee, told Ms Turness that “BBC Verify is not necessarily seen universally as something that is helping the BBC’s reputation or building trust and confidence”.

In his Newsnight interview during the protest, Clarkson accused Derbyshire of forming her ideas in the same “sixth-form debating society” as Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor.

The journalist had opened the interview by asking Clarkson why he was at the rally. When he replied that he was supporting farmers, she countered: “So it’s not about you, it’s not about your farm and the fact that you bought a farm to avoid inheritance tax?”

Derbyshire was referring to a 2021 interview in which the star of Clarkson’s Farm said he had bought his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat farm in the Cotswolds mainly because there were no death duties on land.

Clarkson said Derbyshire’s line of questioning was “unbelievable” and scoffed when she repeated the Chancellor’s line that the tax is necessary to raise money for public services.

“Have you tried to get a GP appointment lately?” she asked. “Yes, I just recently had a heart attack,” Clarkson replied, referencing his recent health scare. Derbyshire continued: “So you know it’s tough. So where should they get the money from if it’s not from farmers?”

BBC Newsnight

It came as Mr Reed told a parliamentary committee that many of the protesting farmers “probably happily, are wrong” about the effect on their farms.

Alistair Carmichael, the chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee, told Mr Reed there were “a lot more than 500 [farmers] here saying they’re going to be affected”, and asked whether they were wrong.

In comments likely to anger the farming community, the Environment Secretary replied: “Well, assuming these projections from HMRC, validated by the OBR and IFS, are correct, then many of them, probably happily, are wrong because there are things that they can do to plan their tax affairs as most businesses or asset owners would do to limit their liability.”

He added: “The numbers I’ve heard bandied around are enormous and very, very frightening if people were to believe them”.

Mr Reed blamed a “black hole” in the public finances for his about-turn on the tax, which, in the run-up to the election, he had assured farmers would not happen.

Meanwhile, Mr Zeichner told Times Radio that “tens of thousands of family farms across the country will not be affected by this and, of course, with a bit of planning, no inheritance tax will be payable at all”.

The rural affairs minister said: “But what we have seen is people coming in, buying up land for the purposes of tax avoidance. And we don’t think that’s the right thing for the future of the farming sector or the right thing in general for the public.”

Clive Bailye, one of the organisers behind Tuesday’s protest, who is an arable farmer in Staffordshire, said the minister’s comments were insulting.

He added: “We do plan. My family have openly talked about succession with accountants for years. We had a plan and it involved the BPR [business property relief] and APR we had pre-Budget. How do I now plan with a mother and father in their late 70s and poor health?”

A BBC spokesman said: “We’ve covered different points of view on this story and given an impartial, factual analysis of the numbers involved.”

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