I’d like to update readers on NFU Cymru’s most recent pre-legislative lobbying on the Budget Resolutions concerning the UK Government’s inheritance tax (IHT) reforms.

In simple terms, this stage is both procedural and, in many ways, performative but crucially not part of the formal legislative process where MPs vote on the Finance Bill to give statutory effect to tax and spending changes, including the proposed changes to IHT. For a lobbying organisation like NFU Cymru, however, it’s still very much an important opportunity to show opposition to the Family Farm Tax.

A Westminster source had tipped the unions off that the Speaker of the House of Commons had selected the section within the Budget Resolution that set out the IHT changes for an imminent vote that evening. It was telling that ‘Resolution 50’, which set out the reductions in Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR), was put to a vote in the House of Commons alongside those normally voted on, such as the Resolutions affecting income tax and other duties. This choice by the Speaker was not only unexpected but illustrated the controversy surrounding the changes to IHT.

With only a few hours’ notice, NFU Cymru and the NFU put out an immediate call to actionfor members to contact their Labour MP and urge them to abstain on Resolution 50. Readers may, understandably, question why the unions urged Labour MPs to abstain rather than vote against the resolution. This choice was made on two broad points. First, votes on Budget Resolutions are considered matters of confidence meaning that were it to fail then the government would have effectively lost a vote of no-confidence as their ability to authorise taxation was defunct, meaning that even the most sympathetic MPs would likely refuse to vote against the government. Secondly, any MPs who did vote against the government risked having the whip and party support withdrawn, as was the case for the sole Labour MP Markus Campbell-Savours. Ultimately, as a procedural vote where the option to amend the changes to IHT were not available, this is not an indication of the votes when it comes to the Finance Bill.

Despite these challenges and threats, in just a few hours over 30 Labour MPs conscientiously abstained on the vote including three Welsh Labour MPs; Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower), Henry Tufnell (Mid and South Pembrokeshire) and Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr). For what was an unexpected and purely procedural vote, this result is just the beginning of a show of strength against the policy so early on in the parliamentary process.

As we look ahead to the true legislative process, NFU Cymru is urging Labour MPs to join with opposition parties, the unions and the industry as a whole and vote against the proposed changes. At the very least, the UK Government must remove the anti-forestalling clause which means that if an elderly or terminally ill farmer who transfers their ownership to a descendant, but dies within seven years, will be liable to pay IHT under the new system.