By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-01-18 12:41:18 | Updated at 2025-01-18 19:39:57
6 hours ago
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have been branded "po-faced" and "resistant" following Asda's decision to back farmers protesting inheritance tax changes.
Farmer and campaigner Andrew Ward's criticism follows supermarket Asda's support for farmers in their fight against Labour's planned inheritance tax reforms.
After receiving support from Morrisons for their ongoing supermarket protests, Asda publicly declared its support for farmers through a strongly-worded statement backing the agricultural sector.
"Farming is a vital part of our supply chain. We need a confident farming sector which is able and willing to invest in its future," an Asda spokesman said.
Farmer Andrew Ward hit out at 'po-faced' Keir Starmer as the row over inheritance tax continues
GB News / PA
The Countryside Alliance welcomed Asda's announcement, with its director of external affairs Mo Metcalf-Fisher calling it "incredibly welcome" and hoping more supermarkets would join "the ever-growing mountain of voices calling for an urgent rethink."
The supermarket giant confirmed it would support the National Farming Union's campaign calling for a pause in the implementation of Agricultural Property Relief changes.
Speaking to GB News about the ongoing row, Ward praised the public support for the demonstrations, noting that their backing has been "phenomenal".
Ward said: "We've had something like 550 supermarkets being attended by five to ten tractors per supermarket all over the UK, and the reception we've had from the public and the support has been absolutely phenomenal."
Ward fumed: "It is really difficult, because on the one hand, you've got somebody who, whenever he comes on TV to everybody looking, he's so po-faced, he's so absolutely resistant.
"And also Rachel Reeves, they say they're not going to go back. They're not going to U-turn."
Stressing that there is potential for a "U-turn" or "compromise" on the decision, Ward added: "There is a compromise in this. There is a way that everybody can win out of this.
"Because at the minute, all they're doing with their £1million threshold is they're protecting the people that come out of the city with a lot of money to buy a family home with ten acres of grass. That's all they're protecting."
Ward told GB News that Starmer and Reeves are 'resistant' to any possible U-turn or compromise
GB News
Ward concluded: "But when you start to look at the returns from farming and the way that we produce the food, the way we look after the environment, it's huge. And I don't know how we're going to do this."
Reeves has so far rejected calls to modify the tax, despite warnings from farming groups about its impact on family farms.
The Government maintains that only a few farms will be affected, suggesting many family farms will fall below the threshold.
