𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Rural campaigners have erupted in fury after Andy Burnham handed the farming brief to an MP who backed the hated family farm tax five times.

Angela Eagle, whose seat of Wallasey is not a rural constituency, has now been installed as the DEFRA Secretary, despite defending the controversial inheritance tax raid on farmers under Sir Keir Starmer.

The Daily Express has led a long campaign to ‘Stop the Family Farm Tax’ amid mounting fears for the damage it will inflict on the UK’s rural communities.

Top Tory Victoria Atkins MP said the appointment proved Labour had lurched further Left under its new leader.

She fumed: “This latest version of a Labour government is just a more left-wing version of the old tax-hiking Starmer government.”

Ms Atkins warned that Mr Burnham “has appointed an urban MP, Angela Eagle, as Defra Secretary who defended these vindictive taxes vigorously under Keir Starmer, voting for them FIVE times.”

She added that the Tories would “axe the Family Farm and Business Taxes when we’re back in government”.

Farmers have not welcomed the appointment, with Charles Goadby telling the Daily Express “I’m not sure how much of a clue she’s got”.

The 48-year-old Mr Goadby said he had a “bit of a relief” that Ms Eagle wasn’t entirely inexperienced, but said he still had worries.

“It is a big concern that this is someone who was completely backing the inheritance tax,” he said.

Farmers across the country are “making losses across the board” and don’t have “much hope about Andy Burnham being any different” , he added.

Fellow farmer Patrick Barker branded “the entire inheritance tax idea” as “ill thought through and ridiculously unaffordable”.

He added: “Farms like us which are around 1000 acres would never have been able to pay it, especially at the time when a family is going through its worst possible moment.

“It’s like saying to a taxi driver ‘you need to sell your taxi to pay your taxes’.”

Rural campaigners also rounded on the new Prime Minister, accusing him of ignoring the countryside just a day after promising to end Westminster’s “wrong turns”.

Mo Metcalf-Fisher, director of external affairs at the Countryside Alliance, said the family farm tax was “one of Starmer’s biggest political mistakes”.

He said the policy triggered the biggest rural protests seen in Westminster since Tony Blair’s row with the countryside over hunting in the early 2000s.

Mr Metcalf-Fisher warned rural Britain was still reeling, with pubs and farms both hammered by soaring taxes and National Insurance hikes.

He said the countryside desperately wanted to trust Mr Burnham’s promise to “bring back hope” – but warned trust “is earned through respect and action”.

His comments come as thousands prepare to descend on the Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show this week, marking its 138th anniversary.

Mr Metcalf-Fisher said rural communities would be watching closely to see whether Mr Burnham brings real change – or lets the countryside become “an afterthought” once again.

He added: “If ‘change’ turns out to be nothing more than a repeat of past mistakes, rural people will feel sidelined, let down and hurt.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “This government is putting its full weight behind farmers – giving them the funding, tools and opportunities they need to succeed.

“Our Farming Roadmap sets the first long-term vision for farming since the Second World War, backed by £11.8 billion of investment, to support a profitable and sustainable sector.”