Ms Lockhart said: “This was supposed to be an independent review, led by former NFU president, Baroness Batters. Now the review has been published, the Baroness has publicly admitted that DEFRA did not give her a free rein to express the true concerns of the farmers who contributed.

“I find it disgraceful and totally unacceptable that the Labour Government explicitly prevented Baroness Batters from acknowledging how the changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) will directly undermine family farms, generational succession and long-term investment across the UK.”

Ms Lockhart added: “As a beef farmer herself, Baroness Batters fully understands the central importance of profitability to farm sustainability.

“During a brief conversation with her at the Balmoral Show in May, I stressed the value of UK agriculture and robustly challenged her not to ignore inheritance tax or damaging UK trade deals. I made it clear that she needed to push Labour to scrap its ‘death tax’ plans.

“Since then, I’ve made several requests to meet Baroness Batters in Westminster, but my emails were intercepted and my requests brushed off by DEFRA officials. It is obvious now what was at play.”

While the Upper Bann MP has acknowledged the government’s pre-Christmas announcement to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £2.5m per person, she warned: “This is welcome news for small family farms, buy it does not go far enough. Larger, intensive farm businesses will still be heavily penalised, and the new-look proposal, fails to undo the irreversible damage already caused by the Chancellor’s initial ‘tax grab’ plans.



“The inheritance tax reforms have caused months of stress and anguish for farming families, with thousands across the UK driven to the depths of despair, or forced to close the gates on their enterprises.

“At a time of soaring costs and mounting uncertainty across the UK, it’s no surprise that farmers are worried about the future, and the prospect of burdening loved-ones with tax liabilities.”

Ms Lockhart continued: “Farmers are asset rich, but cash poor. Considering inflation and the value of farmland in Northern Ireland, it is inevitable that larger family farms will still be forced to sell land or assets to survive. That is fundamentally incompatible with any credible plan to improve profitability, resilience or food security.

“Farm profitability cannot be strengthened while government policy actively penalises those who simply want to protect their legacy and pass viable family farms on to the next generation.”

The long-awaited Farm Profitability Review, commissioned by the government in April and published by DEFRA on 18^th December, contains 57 recommendations.

Carla Lockhart MP concluded: “In the 155-page report, Baroness Batters confirms there is ‘no silver bullet’ for restoring farm profitability and calls for partnership between government, farmers and the food industry.

“In response, DEFRA Secretary, Emma Reynolds MP, has announced a new Farming and Food Partnership Board. This will undoubtedly haemorrhage public money while failing to deliver anything of substance for farmers on the ground.”