‘Farmers are dying over Labour tax,’ insists Tory shadow minister Victoria Atkins ...Middle East

The fear of larger inheritance tax bills is already leading farmers to take their own lives, according to Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins.

“I know it’s happening because I’ve been told by people that it’s happening within families,” the Conservative tells The i Paper, claiming that farmers are feeling pressured into dying to avoid the bills that are due from next year after Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘ controversial decision. 

“We know that not only are these conversations happening around kitchen tables – there have been instances already.”

Atkins has provided one example – of a farmer “took himself off to a remote part of his farm and killed himself”. “The message he left his family, who wish to remain anonymous, is that he did this because he feared becoming a financial burden to his family because of changes to inheritance tax,” she told MPs in Parliament recently.

But Reeves reduced farmers’ exemption to inheritance tax after claiming the Tories had left behind a £22bn “black hole” in the public finances.

And Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, accused Atkins of “seeking to weaponise” personal tragedy and being “irresponsible in the extreme”. The Treasury claims only 500 of the wealthiest estates a year will be affected when the existing exemption for farms from inheritance tax ends in a year’s time.

But experts say that is a gross underestimate and that the change will hit many more, including tenant farmers. The Central Association of Agricultural Valuers estimates the true total will be closer to 2,500 a year.

It was reported last month that The Farm Safety Foundation – a charity offering mental support – had seen an increase in calls since the extra tax was announced.

Atkins is unapologetic in flagging what some critics say is a “suicide window” created by the policy.

“I genuinely can’t think of another policy that has had quite this impact and I don’t understand how ministers can look themselves in the mirror.”

Shadow secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural affairs, Victoria Atkins MP. Photo Tom Pilston

However, determining causation when it comes to cases of suicide is not straightforward. According to Samaritans, the suicide prevention charity, “suicide is extremely complex and most of the time there is no single event or factor that leads someone to take their own life”.

Atkins was speaking fresh from the latest protest in Westminster with thousands of farmers from across the UK demanding a rethink. With the Conservative Party largely on the backfoot after last year’s election drubbing its campaign against ‘Labour’s family farm tax’ stands out as a rare political win.

Some Labour MPs representing rural constituencies have already come out against the tax hike and Atkins says others will face a “very, very difficult decision” when the Commons comes to vote on the changes later this year.

“They are going to have to decide whether they’re going to toe the party line or whether they’re going to vote with their farmers and their constituents.”

‘Tories are farmers’ champions, not Reform’

The 48 year-old also claims that it is the Tories – not Reform, whose leader Nigel Farage has been prominent at farmers’ protests – who have taken the fight to the government.

So, with Farage accused of being “Putin’s puppet” by his enemies and acting as if he is “The Messiah” according someone who was until last week one of his own MPs, does Atkins think we are past ‘peak Reform’?

“They’re very good at the showmanship but the more they come under scrutiny the more we understand how much they’re trying to lead people up the garden path.”

“We know that when Farage has talked about Putin in the past, it has been in surprisingly warm tones, admiring tones. I think the public find that aspect of Reform deeply, deeply unedifying,” she says.

The Reform leader’s closeness to Donald Trump is no doubt also on her mind when she promises to protect UK farmers from being undercut in any future trade deal with the US.

“President Trump will want the best possible deal he can get for the United States. We understand that. And given he is the president, we too must have a laser-like focus on our own national interest. I will struggle to understand how any prime minister could say that a deal involving chlorinated chicken or hormone treated beef is in our national interest.

“My goodness me, if he does, then he will meet the wrath not only of the countryside, but also people in the United Kingdom who care about animal welfare standards.”

Daughter of Conservative politicians

Atkins represents Louth and Horncastle, a seat in rural Lincolnshire. But she was a criminal barrister before becoming a Tory MP and is the daughter of Conservative politicians –   Sir Robert Atkins, a former MP and MEP, and Lady (Dulcie) Atkins, a Tory councillor and mayor – not farmers.

“I must have been the only child who thought it was completely normal to buy raffle tickets with their pocket money,” she says in what sounds like a well-used parry when asked about her status as a Tory dynast.

She prosecuted criminals when Starmer was director of public prosecutions (DPP) and says it irks her when he claims credit for the hard work of others, including her. She specialised in the intersection between fraud and organised crime.

“It’s one of the most fascinating, albeit darkly fascinating, aspects of pursuing criminals. Like any good business they will diversify: those criminals that are importing drugs and guns and people will also try their hand at fraud, and they’ll try their hand at money laundering”

There is a long pause when she is asked if she thinks Starmer is a good lawyer. “What worries me is that he is so immersed in human rights law that is now skewing the application of his interpretation of other aspects of the law.” She cites the Chagos Islands deal and the appointment of Lord Hermer, another human rights lawyer, to the post of Attorney General as evidence.

Atkins has an office next to Kemi Badenoch and appears to be in the ascendant in her party. Those close to Badenoch certainly approve of her relative loyalty and confidence with the media. She certainly seems up for the fight ahead.

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