One of the striking things about this inheritance tax row is just how very, very bad the government has been at putting its case and rebutting the right-wing press, NFU, Conservative Party and other predictable opponents, none of whom are ever going to support Labour. Starmer commented this weekend - I believe, for the first time - that actually, if the landowner is married, and if proper estate planning is carried out, the threshold for paying will be more than £2million (he said £3m: I’m not sure how he got to that figure, but I have seen from experts like Dan Neidle and Paul Lewis calculations comfortably exceeding £2m).The most cogent principled argument for the tax came not from Number 10 or 11, but from Will Hutton in this week’s Observer. But most voters will have been left with the impression that this is a tax on all farmers - rather than, as is the case, a tax on a few hundred per year extremely rich people - whose assets place them in the top 3 or 4% of wealth in this country. And most voters will also not have been told that this exemption for farmers, far from being some sort of ancient rural birthright for the noble sons of the soil, only came in during Mrs Thatcher’s time as PM.
Yes, the Will Hutton article put the argue very well. This government isn’t very good at teaching the electorate about its policies. It needs to up its game.
One of the striking things about this inheritance tax row is just how very, very bad the government has been at putting its case and rebutting the right-wing press, NFU, Conservative Party and other predictable opponents, none of whom are ever going to support Labour. Starmer commented this weekend - I believe, for the first time - that actually, if the landowner is married, and if proper estate planning is carried out, the threshold for paying will be more than £2million (he said £3m: I’m not sure how he got to that figure, but I have seen from experts like Dan Neidle and Paul Lewis calculations comfortably exceeding £2m).The most cogent principled argument for the tax came not from Number 10 or 11, but from Will Hutton in this week’s Observer. But most voters will have been left with the impression that this is a tax on all farmers - rather than, as is the case, a tax on a few hundred per year extremely rich people - whose assets place them in the top 3 or 4% of wealth in this country. And most voters will also not have been told that this exemption for farmers, far from being some sort of ancient rural birthright for the noble sons of the soil, only came in during Mrs Thatcher’s time as PM.
Yes, the Will Hutton article put the argue very well. This government isn’t very good at teaching the electorate about its policies. It needs to up its game.