Budget 2017: 'Inheritance tax cut will only help minority in Yorkshire'

Rachel Reeves pointed to figures showing 43 per cent of estates currently hit by inheritance tax are in London and the South East while just five per cent are in Yorkshire.

The Leeds West MP argued the figures showed plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold to allow a couple to pass on up to £1m will disproportionately benefit the South.

The change is expected to cost the Treasury £1bn by 2021 and see the number of estates paying the tax fall from 63,000 a year to 37,000 a year.

Ms Reeves, a former Bank of England economist, said: “These figures show the blatant unfairness of the planned cuts to inheritance tax.

“The cuts will allow some of the richest people in London and the South East to pass on a £1 million house to their children entirely free of inheritance tax.

“The tax cut just illustrates the Government’s misguided and muddle-headed set of priorities.

“The money would be far better spent on early years education and investing in all our children – not just increasing the privileges of those born into rich families.

“The £1 billion cost of this inheritance tax break is little more than a subsidy to the property market in London and the South East and will only deepen the North-South divide."

Ms Reeves published the new figures ahead of Chancellor Philip Hammond's first Budget today and called on him to take the opportunity to scrap the measure devised by his predecessor George Osborne.

The change is due to be phased in starting next month.