Finance (No. 2) Bill

John Milne Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Daisy Cooper (St Albans) (LD)]

If this Finance Bill represents anything, I am sorry to say that it represents the fact that the Government know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. We Liberal Democrats have tabled a reasoned amendment against this Bill, setting out all the reasons why we are against it.

Ultimately, this Bill is a series of short-term Treasury tax grabs, with no care for the consequences and no vision for the future. People are crying out for change—the change that they were promised—but the double whammy of stealth taxes on households and high streets makes the Labour Government look like nothing more than continuity Conservatives. Once again extending the unfair freeze on income tax thresholds will drag millions of low-paid workers into tax. The failure to reform the business rates system again makes the Government look like continuity Conservatives.

In a turbulent world, we need to boost our sovereign capabilities, and food security is critical to that, yet despite all the evidence, all the campaigning and all the honking of tractor horns on Whitehall, the Government have failed to get it right.

[John Milne (Horsham) (LD)]

In 2023, the Prime Minister told the National Farmers Union that

“losing a farm is not like losing any other business”.

He has also said,

“If somebody makes powerful representations, then my instinct is to consider what’s being said. Getting it right is more important than ploughing on with a package which doesn’t necessarily achieve the desired outcome.”

Is it not time that the Prime Minister followed his instincts and abandoned the family farm tax?

[Daisy Cooper]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, and I wholeheartedly agree that the Prime Minister should change direction. It is deeply disappointing that, having been grilled at the Liaison Committee yesterday, he clearly has no intention of doing so. The changes to the agricultural property relief and the business property relief will punish family farmers who put food on our tables and guarantee the food security of our nation, and they will not tackle the loophole of private equity companies and celebrity farmers buying land to reduce their tax liability.