Farming
Farm subsidies and agricultural policy
Based on 3 parliamentary votes
Related Agriculture and Rural Affairs Issues
How Parties Voted on Farming
Government alignment shows how often each party voted with the government's stated position. Issue-aligned direction shows agreement with the AI-identified supportive stance.
Recent Votes
| Vote | Result | Date |
|---|---|---|
Vote on a Budget Resolution to limit Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief for inheritance tax, capping the full relief available on farm and business assets. This matters because it changes how farming estates and family businesses are taxed on death, and was highly controversial with farming communities. Yes = Support limiting inheritance tax reliefs on agricultural and business property, accepting that large farming and business estates should face greater inheritance tax liability · No = Oppose limiting these inheritance tax reliefs, arguing it threatens family farms and businesses and risks forcing asset sales to meet tax bills Govt: Aye | 328-182 | 2 Dec 2025 |
Vote on regulations that reduce the 'delinked payments' made to farmers in England — subsidies that replaced EU-era direct payments after Brexit. These regulations set the schedule for cutting those payments, which are being phased out as part of the transition to a new agricultural support system. Yes = Support proceeding with the planned reduction of delinked farm subsidy payments in England, as part of the government's agricultural transition policy · No = Oppose the reduction in delinked payments, arguing the cuts are too steep, too fast, or harmful to farmers' financial viability Govt: Aye | 297-165 | 31 Mar 2025 |
MPs voted on an opposition motion criticising the government's decision to apply inheritance tax to agricultural property from 2026, which farmers argue threatens family farm viability. The Conservatives brought this as an Opposition Day debate to put pressure on Labour over a policy that has sparked widespread protests from the farming community. Yes = Support the motion criticising the inheritance tax changes affecting farms, backing exemptions or relief for agricultural property to protect family farms · No = Oppose the motion, defending the government's inheritance tax reform as a fair measure to close a loophole exploited by wealthy landowners, not primarily affecting ordinary family farmers Govt: No | 183-340 | 4 Dec 2024 |
How is this calculated?
Government alignment (primary bar) shows how often a party's MPs voted with the government's stated position on this issue. This is the most comparable metric across parties, as it measures the same reference point for everyone.
Issue-aligned direction (secondary bar) shows how often MPs voted in the direction tagged as supportive of this issue by AI analysis. For example, if a vote is tagged “pro-environment”, a Yes vote counts as aligned. This can be misleading when the tagged direction happens to align with opposition amendments rather than government bills.
Why these metrics may differ: Opposition parties often vote against government bills for strategic or procedural reasons, even when they broadly support the policy area. The government alignment metric makes this clearer by showing the actual voting pattern against a consistent reference.
Source: Commons division data from the UK Parliament Votes API. Alignment direction determined by AI analysis of vote stance tags. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.