Opposition Day: Family businesses

What happened: The House of Commons voted on 26 February 2025 on a Conservative Opposition Day motion calling for support for family businesses, with particular focus on inheritance tax relief and reducing regulatory burdens. The motion was defeated by 313 votes to 108, a margin of 205.

Why it matters: The vote centred on whether Parliament would formally endorse special inheritance tax relief for family businesses, a policy directly relevant to how family-owned firms are passed between generations. The existing Agricultural and Business Property Relief (APR and BPR) regimes had been targeted for reform in the October 2024 Budget, with the government proposing to cap the relief available, and this motion represented an attempt by the Opposition to force a parliamentary statement of support for those reliefs in their existing or expanded form. A defeat meant no such endorsement was recorded, and the government's planned changes faced no parliamentary check from this vote.

The politics: The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 102 participating Conservative MPs voted for the motion, joined by four Reform UK MPs, two Democratic Unionists, and two independents. All 311 participating Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted against. The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the SNP and the SDLP did not vote. The Ulster Unionist Party voted no. The result reflects the government's comfortable Commons majority and the Conservative Party's use of Opposition Day time to highlight its disagreement with Labour's inheritance tax changes, placing the debate within a broader pattern of Conservative opposition to the October 2024 Budget measures affecting farms and family businesses.