The Government have made many claims about this policy that are not credible, but I wish to address only four.
First, they outrageously claimed that they would not do it. The Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Streatham and Croydon North (Steve Reed), said last year:
“We have no intention of changing APR.”
He said that given the situation that farmers are in, a Government cannot possibly go to people and demand more taxes. I am sorry he is not here today to hear his own words.
Secondly, the Government claim the change is unavoidable as they desperately need the £500 million they claim that it will raise. The £500 million that they give to farms overseas and the £9 billion that they were all too happy to hand over to public sector unions says otherwise.
Thirdly, the Government claim that these people are rich. That completely misunderstands agriculture and the countryside. A farm is not an asset on a balance sheet. Our farmers are stewards of their land, holding it for the next generation and the generation after that. It is not the fault of farmers—especially those in places such as my constituency in Kent, with its astronomical house prices—that their land is so valuable in a way that does not at all reflect their farm’s profitability.