The Tories have been accused of ‘weaponising tragedy’ after claiming some farmers are taking their lives because of Labour’s inheritance tax policy.
Last year, the government announced some farms would lose their exemption from inheritance tax. In her budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves revealed inheritance tax would apply to agricultural assets worth more than £1 million from April 2026.
Since then, there has been criticism from some farmers, with varying claims about how much the policy will affect them and the farming industry.
Some older farmers have said the policy has left them with little time to make alternative arrangements as they had planned to leave their farms to their children without inheritance tax liability.
Speaking during environment questions, Tory shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins claimed that some farmers had “taken their own lives” because of the worry the inheritance tax was causing them.
She said: “Before Christmas, I warned the secretary of state that a farmer had taken their own life because they were so worried about the family farm tax. He responded with anger and later stopped the farming resilience fund, which helped farmers with mental ill health.
“This week, I have received the devastating news that several more farmers have taken their own lives because of the family farm tax. This is the secretary of state’s legacy, but he can change it, because it is not yet law.
“Will he set out these tragedies to the prime minister, demand that Labour policy is changed, or offer an appointed principal his resignation?”
In response, environment secretary Steve Reed said he was sorry that Atkins was seeking “to politicise personal tragedy in this way”.
He told the house: “I think it’s immensely, immensely regrettable that she would seek to do that. None of us have been sure what happens in matters of personal tragedy. But I think it’s beneath her, actually, to try to weaponise it in a way that she has done this.
“This government takes the issues of mental health very, very seriously indeed. That is why we are setting up mental health hubs in every community so that we can support farmers and others who are suffering from mental health, which I would again remind her is a problem that escalated during her time in office the secretary of state for health, where she failed to address the problems people are facing.”
Related: UK agrees to concessions on food and agriculture imports from US