Farmers arrive in Westminster to protest about inheritance tax changes
Tractors have arrived in Westminster for today’s protest by farmers opposed to the budget plan to extend inheritance tax to cover some farms, PA Media reports. PA says:
The first tractors have arrived in Westminster with much fanfare, honking and drawing cheers from some passersby near Parliament Square in central London.
The tractors are driving around Parliament Square, many of them flying the Union flag.
They are also decorated with signs that read: “No farmers, no food”, “Not hungry, thank a farmer”, and “Save British Farming”.
Another sign read “Starmer Farmer Harmer”, and a second one “Reeves and Starmer, grave robbers”.
There is a police presence in the area to cover the protest which is set to draw thousands of demonstrators today.
The “RIP British Farming” protest is organised by Kent Fairness for Farmers and Save British Farming in response to the “toxic” budget, which included changes to inheritance tax for agricultural businesses and a faster phaseout of EU-era subsidies in favour of environmental payments.
Key events
The Commons environment committee has been taking evidence on the future of farming this morning, and one of the witnesses was Dr Arun Advani, an economics professor at Warwick University and head of the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax), a thinktank.
Advani told MPs that, even with the extension of inheritance tax to some farms announced in the budget, farms were still “much more attractive than other sorts of assets” for people wanting to reduce their inheritance tax liability. That is because agricultural property relief is just being cut from 100% to 50% on assets worth more than £1m, not cut altogether. He said:
One reason for doing that is because there are farmers who you might be concerned about, who are earning, who have wealth a bit above the current tax-free threshold, who you want to give a low rate to because of the well documented concerns about incomes of farmers.
But the downside is it still means that if you have, say, £100m or £1bn that you want to put into farmland, 20% rate is still much more attractive than other sorts of assets.
And so what you will still have in this world is people who want to buy up agricultural land, competing with genuine farmers, who are trying to expand their farm, who really are actually wanting to work on the land. They’re still going to have to compete with much better off people.
There will be two government statements in the Commons after PMQs.
At 12.30pm Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, will make one on international collaboration on border security (following the deal with Germany announced yesterday). And after that Wes Streeting, the health secretary, will deliver a statement headlined “Puberty Suppressing Hormones: Next Steps”. When Streeting took office, he he extended a temporary ban on puberty blockers originally introduced by the Tories following the Cass report.
Unions condemn government plan for public sector workers to get 2.8% pay rise next year
Unions representing teachers, doctors and nurses have condemned proposals among Whitehall departments to increase workers’ pay by 2.8% next year, arguing that the rise, which is 0.2% above projected inflation, is too low, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Department of Health and Social Care, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education have all recommended 2.8% pay rises for staff in 2025-26.
The proposals yesterday came after chancellor Rachel Reeves called for every government department to cut costs by 5%, as she started work on a sweeping multi-year spending review to be published in 2025.
Unions reacted angrily to the recommendations, with some hinting they could launch further industrial action unless negotiations take place.
The Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary and chief executive, Nicola Ranger, called for “open, direct talks now” to avoid “further escalation to disputes and ballots”.
The British Medical Association said the Government showed a “poor grasp” of unresolved issues from two years of industrial action, while the National Education Union’s chief, Daniel Kebede, said teachers were “putting the Government on notice” that the proposed increase “won’t do”.
Inflation is predicted to average 2.5% this year and 2.6% next year, according to forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Unison said the proposed 2.8% rise was “barely above the cost of living”, while Unite said the NHS recruitment and retention crisis “will not be solved without taking the issue of restorative pay seriously”.
Independent pay review bodies will consider the government’s proposals along with other evidence before making recommendations to departments on the level of pay.
Here are some more pictures from the farmers’ protest in Westminster.
Mahmood suggests jury trials will be abandoned for some cases, saying court backlog means ‘justice denied’
Shabana Mahmood hinted in an interview this morning that jury trials could be scrapped for some offenders in England and Wales to reduce court delays.
There have been reports saying the government is considering introducing a new “intermediary” court, comprising a judge sitting with two magistrates, to replace the traditional jury in trials for crime where the maximum sentence is no more than two years in jail.
This idea was first proposed in a review by Sir Robin Auld commissioned by the Tony Blair government more than 20 years ago. Civil liberty campaigners objected strongly, and the proposal was never taken up.
But, in an interview with LBC, Mahmood implied that the idea, or some version of it, may be adopted.
Asked if jury trials would be scrapped for some offences, Mahmood said she could not answer because there would be an announcement “imminently” in the House of Commons.
Asked what the possible advantages might be, she replied:
We do have a crown court backlog that is very high and likely to rise, because the sheer number of cases that are coming into the system is so big, that even if we were sitting at maximum capacity across the whole of the crown court, we still wouldn’t be able to touch the sides of that backlog.
That does say that we need to think about doing things differently, and the announcements that we will be making will set out the government’s proposals in this space.
We are going to have to think about different levers, because the problem we have at the moment is victims are waiting far too long to have their case heard in court. So many of them drop out because it’s years that you have to wait till you get to trial.
And we do have to ask ourselves, you know, what does justice look like when you have a crown court backlog that’s that high?
I do believe that justice delayed is justice denied. So, we are going to have to think about a different way of managing our crown courts so that we can crack down on that backlog properly.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, strongly defended the protest by farmers in interviews this morning. Speaking on Sky News, he said he was “absolutely” on their side. He said:
Good for them. They are facing this utterly iniquitous, frankly cruel family farm tax.
You’ve got farmers – these are not wealthy people. These are people who have a couple of hundred acres, had always expected to hand their farm on to their children and their grandchildren.
And now, as a result of what Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have done in the budget, they are fearful. They don’t know what the future holds for them and their farm.
Farmers arrive in Westminster to protest about inheritance tax changes
Tractors have arrived in Westminster for today’s protest by farmers opposed to the budget plan to extend inheritance tax to cover some farms, PA Media reports. PA says:
The first tractors have arrived in Westminster with much fanfare, honking and drawing cheers from some passersby near Parliament Square in central London.
The tractors are driving around Parliament Square, many of them flying the Union flag.
They are also decorated with signs that read: “No farmers, no food”, “Not hungry, thank a farmer”, and “Save British Farming”.
Another sign read “Starmer Farmer Harmer”, and a second one “Reeves and Starmer, grave robbers”.
There is a police presence in the area to cover the protest which is set to draw thousands of demonstrators today.
The “RIP British Farming” protest is organised by Kent Fairness for Farmers and Save British Farming in response to the “toxic” budget, which included changes to inheritance tax for agricultural businesses and a faster phaseout of EU-era subsidies in favour of environmental payments.
Mahmood defends changing planning rules to reduce chances of new jails being blocked by local opposition
Prisons, pay and planning are the three main political stories around this morning. Before the general election Keir Starmer was very explicit about who he was up for a fight with nimby local comunities over his plans to get more homes and infrastructure built. That battle is now commencing.
The Daily Telegraph has splashed this morning on a story about how today’s prisons announcement includes a reference to planning rules being changed to ensure jails are treated as nationally important projects, reducing the chances they may be blocked or delayed because of local opposition.
And the Times has got a front page story about changes to planning rules being announced tomorrow. In their report Chris Smyth and Geraldine Scott say:
Angela Rayner will press ahead with plans to prioritise for housebuilding an area of the green belt bigger than Surrey, insisting there is no alternative to large-scale development in the countryside around big cities.
The deputy prime minister is expected to set out an expanded definition of “low quality” green belt on Thursday that experts say will result in about 100,000 homes a year being built on previously protected land.
Conservation campaigners warned of “the worst sprawl since the 1950s” as they criticised ministers for moving far beyond their original plan to build on disused petrol stations and other “ugly” parts of the green belt.
In her interview on BBC Breakfast this morning Shabana Mahmood confirmed the Telegraph story. “Our manifesto commitment was that we consider prisons to be of national importance,” she said.
Asked about people opposed to having a new jail built near where they lived, Mahmood suggested national need should come first.
What I would say to your viewers is of more concern is when the nation runs out of prison places. You have to pull emergency levers, as I had to when I first came into office, to make sure that there’s enough space in our prisons …. We have to be honest about the fact that prison building is required.
The Gauke review of sentencing policy is expected to produce recommendations that might lead to some reduction in the number of people being sent to jail, and Keir Starmer indicated that he favoured a different approach when he appointed James Timpson, a businessman with progressive views on penal policy, as prisons minister.
But there are limits to how far the government will go. In her interview on the Today programme Shabana Mahmood was asked if she agreed with a comment Timpson made before he became a minister. In an interview in February Timpson said:
We’re addicted to sentencing, we’re addicted to punishment. So many of the people in prison in my view shouldn’t be there. A lot should but a lot shouldn’t, and they’re there for far too long.
Asked if that was the government’s view, Mahmood replied:
No. The view of the government is that prison has to do two things. We have to punish people who break our laws, and we have to show that there are consequences for not living by the rules that most of our citizens live by.
There have to be consequences to bad behavior, to the breaking of our laws, and that means prison will always have a place.
The Law Society of England and Wales has said that building more prisons will not be enough to solve the problems with the criminal justice system. Its president, Richard Atkinson, put out this statement about the Ministry of Justice’s announcement.
The lord chancellor’s investment in the criminal justice system is welcome. However, as an essential service protecting the public, the criminal justice system can only be dealt with holistically, so it will be essential that building more prisons is matched by investment in legal aid, the Crown Prosecution Service and courts. It is vital that the government also invests in rehabilitation for prisoners to reduce reoffending rates and tackle the courts backlogs to help bring down the remand population.
The Howard League for Penal Reform is more critical, saying the money spent on new prisons could be better spent. Its chief executive, Andrea Coomber, put out this statement.
We cannot build our way out of this crisis. The billions of pounds earmarked for opening new jails would be better invested in securing an effective and responsive probation service, working to cut crime in the community.
Problems in prisons spill out into the towns and cities around them, and new jails put added strain on local public services. When violence and self-harm are rife behind bars, it is hardly surprising that proposals to build more prisons meet significant opposition from residents living nearby. This is why the forthcoming review of sentencing is so important. Unless we see concerted action to make sentences proportionate and reduce demand on the system, this crisis will deepen and leave an even bigger mess for future generations to tackle.
Four new prisons to be built but space could still run out, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood warns
Good morning. Labour inherited many problems with public services when it took office, but few were worse than the prison overcrowding crisis. This was so dire that it prompted Rishi Sunak into holding an early election. With the Ministry of Justice just days away from ordering a fresh early release system (which would have been unpopular with voters), this was one of the main reasons for Sunak holding the election in July, not last autumn.
Today, as part of the government’s response, Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, is announcing plans to create 14,000 prison places by 2031. PA Media sums up the plans here.
The government has said it will build four new prisons within the next seven years in a bid to grip the overcrowding crisis.
The Ministry of Justice promised to find a total of 14,000 cell spaces in jails by 2031.
Some 6,400 of these will be at newly built prisons, with £2.3bn towards the cost over the next two years.
The remaining places will be found by measures including building new wings at existing jails, or by refurbishing cells currently out of action, and an extra £500m will go towards “vital building maintenance”, the department said.
The move is part of a 10-year plan to “make sure we can always lock up dangerous criminals”.
Prisons will be deemed sites of “national importance” amid efforts to prevent lengthy planning delays, and new land will be bought for future prisons, the MoJ added.
But Mahmood is also saying that extra spaces alone will not be enough to stop the prison estate filling up. In an interview with the Today programme, she said:
Demand is still rising faster than any supply could possibly catch up with. We’re very honest and transparent in the strategy itself that building alone is not enough because the demand is rising more quickly.
The demand for prison places is actually 4,500 extra every single year. Even with the emergency measures that I’ve been forced to take, that’s 3,000 every year, we can’t get there just by building alone. That’s why I set up the sentencing review just a few weeks ago, because we need a longer term solution.
Asked to confirm that she was saying that, even with the new the four new prisons, the government would still run out of places, Mahmood said:
We will run out, because even all of that new supply, with the increase in prison population that we will see as a result of that new supply, doesn’t help you with the rise in demand, because demand is still rising faster than any supply could possibly catch up with.
The sentencing review Mahmood mentioned is being led by David Gauke, one of her Conservative predecessors. In an interview with Rajeev Syal, he gives some indication of his thinking.
The government wants to talk about prisons, but much of the debate today will be taken up with pay, and the union backlash against government proposals for some public sector workers to get a 2.8% pay rise in 2025-26.
In a separate interview, Mahmood stressed that the government proposals was just the start of the process. She told BBC Breakfast:
I would say to, trade unions and everybody else, that this is the start of that process, and of course I would hope that they recognise that the government’s fiscal inheritance has been extremely difficult, and we do have to make sure that the books overall balance as well, and that pay is on a sustainable footing.
This is the start of that process, and I wouldn’t want to get ahead of where we think the pay review bodies might ultimately make their recommendations.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Lord Timpson, the prisons minister, gives evidence to the Welsh affairs committee on deaths at HMP Parc.
10.30am: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, speaks at the launch of the National Collaborative Charter of Rights in Glasgow for people affected by substance use.
11am: Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers’ Union, gives evidence to the Commons environment committee about the future of farming.
11am: Peers begin the second reading debate for the House of Lords (hereditary peers) bill.
Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
Noon: Farmers hold a rally at Westminster protesting about the budget plan to extend inheritance tax to cover farms.
Afternoon: Kim Leadbeater is expected to announce the names of MPs chosen to sit on the bill committee for the assisted dying bill.
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