Farming leaders brand Treasury 'arrogant' and say their 'blood was boiling' after meeting with ministers

Yet this was labelled by George Dunn, TFA chief executive, as “one of the most unproductive meetings” he has had during his 28 years in the role.

Rachel Reeves has still not met with the leaders to explain the policy, despite multiple requests and protests, and yesterday they said this showed the Chancellor’s “arrogance”.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said Ms Reeves should “look us in the eyes and tell us that she’s right”.

In the Budget, the Chancellor announced proposals to introduce a 20 per cent inheritance tax rate on agricultural land and businesses worth more than £1m, essentially scrapping an exemption which meant no tax was paid to pass down family farms.

The plans continue to face intense opposition from the sector, which says cash-poor, asset-rich farmers will be forced to sell their land and investment will stall.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw has even spoken of fears that elderly and vulnerable farmers, who do not have time for succession planning, are considering taking their own lives.

Yet he said, following the meeting, that the Government believes it is being “generous in the exemptions” it is giving farmers.

“They don’t care about the human impact, they don’t care about the intergenerational impact,” he said.

“They don’t care about the impact on tenant farmers and the geopolitical situation that the world faces today.”

Mr Bradshaw said the Government rebuffed their proposed suggestion for a “clawback” mechanism, which would ensure farms face tax charges only when assets are sold.

The groups believe this could raise a similar figure to the current inheritance tax changes, which the Office for Budget Responsibility said would bring in just £500m to the Exchequer over a three-year period.

But Mr Bradshaw says this was dismissed, adding: “The door is shut from the Treasury.

“The reaction from our members is going to be one of fury, one of real anger, one of desperation that we’ve seen over recent months and it’s what we all feel here.”

Victoria Vyvyan, CLA president, said: “I looked around the room and thought, ‘I’m not sure that there is anybody in this room who really understood when Tom was talking about what a balance sheet looks like’.

“They were just adamant and deaf to what we were trying to say, and I think we all came out slightly with boiling blood about it,” she said.

Mr Dunn, the TFA chief executive, said this was “one of the most unproductive meetings” he has had during his 28 years in the role.

“They were clearly unprepared and unwilling and arrogant enough to say: ‘We’ve done all of the thinking. We don’t think we have to ask any more questions. Job done. We’re not making any changes’.

“So the battle continues because we do think they’ve got this severely wrong,” he said.

A government spokesperson said: “We regularly meet representatives of the farming industry to listen to their views, but strongly believe this is a fair and balanced approach which helps fix the public services we all rely on.

“Our reforms to Agricultural and Business Property Relief will mean three quarters of estates will continue to pay no inheritance tax at all, while the remaining quarter will pay half the inheritance tax that most people pay, and payments can be spread over 10 years, interest-free.

“We are also investing £5 billion into farming over the next two years, the largest amount for sustainable food production in our country’s history, and are going further with reforms to boost profits for farmers by backing British produce and reforming planning rules on farms to support food production."