Kirstie Allsopp says Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves had "f***ed all farmers" following today's budget

Location, Location, Location star Kirstie Allsopp - the daughter of Charles Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip - has hit out at Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves over plans to introduce inheritance tax on some family farms passed down through generations.

She said on X, formerly Twitter, how Reeves had "f***ed all farmers", adding how "she has destroyed their ability to pass farms on to their children, and broken the future of all our great estates, it is an appalling decisions which shows the government has ZERO understanding of the what matters to rural voters".

In the budget, Reeves announced plans to limit inheritance tax relief for farm owners to £2 million. Farms were previously exempt from inheritance tax, which former Conservative chancellor George Osborne said in a podcast had led to some farmers 'buying up farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax'.

The Government said it was still committed to supporting farmers, and was aware of the "vital role they play to feed our nation".

However, when challenged on people who use land 'as a loophole', Allsopp said the chancellor should have targeted those people. She said, "why the hell couldn't Reeves find a way to close that. For example, a ratio of land to home/farm house?", and called the plan "lazy and ill thought out".

Specifically citing a possible increase in inheritance tax, farmer and landlord Richard Payne, 61, said he was concerned what would happen if his son wanted to go into farming. Based in Somerset, Richard owns around 500 acres of land and rents an additional 150-200 acres to farm wheat, barley, oilseed rape and canola.

He said: “Let’s say my son wanted to go into farming and carry on the business – if he had to raise inheritance tax on the land, he’d have to sell 40% of the farm, and then what would be left. That really worries me, because I don’t believe they understand farming and they don’t understand food production. They just believe it all appears on shop shelves, supermarket shelves, by magic.”

Llinos Medi, MP for Ynys Mon in north-west Wales, agreed saying she feared the change announced in the Budget would hit farms hard. She said: “I am afraid that changes to rules on inheritance will seriously threaten Welsh family farms which are the backbone of the rural economy.”

Ms Medi criticised the lack of serious changes to Wales’ funding formula, and said the Chancellor had passed up the chance for significant change. She told the Commons: “Today the Chancellor had the opportunity for a transformative change, but I’m afraid that Chancellor has decided to give with one hand and take with another. Plaid Cymru recognise the terrible financial legacy inherited from the Conservatives, but this was not the way to fix it.