Labour MPs with rural seats should be speaking up on the countryside’s behalf ever more forcefully - Andrew Vine

About time, too. Make no mistake, what we have witnessed amounts to the nastiest and most destructive assault on the countryside and its residents by any government in living memory.

We’ve seen the Prime Minister repeatedly jeer at those who express justified concerns at plans to concrete over the greenbelt or prime agricultural land as ‘nimbys’ and the Chancellor imposing unfair and ruinous inheritance tax changes that will drive family farms out of business.

Environmental protections that have safeguarded precious natural places for generations are being torn up in favour of developers, and councils which act as guardians against inappropriate building face having their powers to prevent it stripped from them.

Vast swathes of land in Yorkshire and beyond are disappearing under solar farms, and it is perfectly possible forests of wind farms will soon be springing up.

Taken together, this feels like a total disregard for the countryside by an administration that lacks understanding of rural communities, and worse, has no sympathy whatsoever for the people who live in them.

But at last, it seems that this hostility is being challenged. A group of 26 Labour MPs representing countryside constituencies calling themselves the Rural Research Group has pushed back, telling the Prime Minister that calling people nimbys is divisive and he risks losing goodwill outside urban areas.

It’s a bit late to complain about that. There can’t be a shred of goodwill left towards Labour in the countryside after all that’s happened.

It needs to be pointed out that this is very mild criticism of the government from a small group of its own MPs and has a strong whiff of self-interest about it.

If things don’t change by the time the next election comes round, the constituents of these MPs will have seen farmers ruined and houses built where green fields once were, and won’t be voting Labour again.

Even so, it is to be welcomed that the MPs have put their heads above the parapet and raised the alarm about what’s happening in the countryside.

They rightly point out that development in rural areas can only succeed if residents are supportive. The MPs said building must “respect and reflect the deep connection to land, nature and local identity”.

They also said Sir Keir Starmer should show more recognition of rural concerns and appreciate that the countryside is bearing the brunt of large-scale renewable energy projects.

If he is to change his tune, the first thing the Prime Minister must do is stop serially insulting rural residents. His pronouncements on the countryside have been at best condescending and at worst abusive.

Over and over again, we’ve heard him vow to “take on the nimbys”, calling them “blockers” who want to “frustrate growth” and form “the alliance of naysayers”.

No, they are none of those things. On the contrary, they have the best interests of their communities at heart.

Far from being opposed to development, they welcome it where appropriate. For proof of that, we need only look to North Yorkshire where residents and councillors alike are keen to see new homes for young people built to sustain towns and villages.

Labour MPs with rural seats should be speaking up on their behalf ever more forcefully.

This is a government that is susceptible to pressure from its own backbenchers, as we saw in its humiliating U-turn on reform of benefits.

MPs who represent the countryside should have no qualms about bringing similar pressure to bear over measures that will cause irreversible harm to rural Britain, particularly the family farm tax.

Though inheritance tax changes will not come into force until next year, their threat is already damaging farming.

The intervention by the Rural Research group needs to be only the start of a concerted campaign by responsible Labour MPs who have a duty to be as concerned about the welfare of the countryside as they are about urban areas.