Angela Rayner criticises ‘scaremongering’ over inheritance tax changes for farmers
Angela Rayner has criticised “scaremongering” over Labour’s reforms to inheritance tax on farms.
The deputy prime minister had to defend the government’s changes to the levy in a bruising House of Commons session, as she stood in for Sir Keir Starmer while the prime minister was away at a G20 summit.
It came a day after more than 10,000 farmers gathered in Westminster to protest against the announcement in last month’s budget.
Politics latest: Rayner faces hostile crowd
The government will reduce inheritance tax relief applied to farms from 6 April 2026. The full 100% relief will only apply to the first £1m of property. Above this amount, landowners will pay inheritance tax at a reduced rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40%.
Farmers will still benefit from reductions, with Labour saying that a “typical” couple handing their estate to their children can gift up to £3m tax-free, and then pay the 20% tax. They will also have 10 years to pay the charge, interest-free.
However, many in agriculture have criticised the decision, and political parties from across the spectrum questioned Ms Rayner on it.
Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader and MP for St Albans in Hertfordshire, said farmers felt “betrayed” by the Conservative government and “lied to by Labour”.
Ms Rayner said she was “sorry” to hear that farmers were “distressed by what I would say is scaremongering around what the Labour Party is doing”.
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Why should farmers be taxed more?
Alex Burghart, the shadow chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, was standing in for Kemi Badenoch – as it is convention for the leader of the Opposition to stand aside from Prime Minister’s Questions if the prime minister is away.
He asked Ms Rayner about a “typical, mid-sized, 360-acre” farm in Yorkshire – saying a family had spoken to their accountant and been told they could be liable to pay £500,000 in inheritance tax – equivalent to 12 years of profit.
The Tory MP added that the NFU is set to publish a report showing 75% of all commercial farms will fall above the threshold of paying inheritance tax.
Read more on farming:
Thousands protest at Downing Street
Jeremy Clarkson says govt should ‘back down’
Rowdy PMQs had ‘teacher is away vibes’
From the outset, this session of PMQs had a distinct “the teacher is away” vibe.
It was rowdy, shouty and prickly.
Labour MPs chuckled as their opposite numbers loudly cheered Alex Burghart – the relatively unknown shadow minister standing in for Kemi Badenoch today.
Angela Rayner quickly reminded colleagues he was the “minister for growth” during Liz Truss’s disastrous spell in Downing Street, sparking whooping from the government benches.
Burghart responded by referencing the views of “city economists… real economists” – a stinging reference to a story around the chancellor changing her LinkedIn profile to remove an apparently erroneous reference to being an economist at Halifax Bank of Scotland before entering politics.
With his microphone frequently cracking and topping out, the shadow Cabinet Office minister zeroed in loudly on inflation and changes to inheritance tax for farmers.
Other Tory backbenchers and the Lib Dem deputy followed suit, seizing on the farming protests that engulfed Westminster yesterday.
It led to what may be the main news line from this session – as Angela Rayner accused critics of “scaremongering” over the impact of the agriculture changes.
There were reprimands from the Speaker as well, with one Labour backbencher told off and the Tory MP Danny Kruger admonished.
He bit back though, saying to the Speaker “are you talking to me? I haven’t opened my mouth” and gestured to colleagues behind to shift the blame.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle later apologised to Mr Kruger – saying his colleague James Wild had put his hand up to being the naughty Tory.
The Speaker warned the pair they should maybe not sit next to each other again.
An appropriately classroom-like exchange in a session where calm maturity was not always at the front of many minds.
Ms Rayner says she “stands by the figures” the government had previously laid out.
She said: “The vast majority of estate owners will see no change and pay no tax on land valued at £1m.
“Couples can pass on £3m tax-free, and those above the thresholds will pay only half the normal rate, and can pay over ten years interest-free.”
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Reform’s Lee Anderson also criticised the policy, and Conservative Saqib Bhatti asked Ms Rayner why Labour has “declared war on British farmers”.
Ms Rayner said the government “hasn’t declared war on farmers” – before reiterating her response on thresholds.
She also said Labour needed to raise money to account for the “£22bn black hole from the Conservatives”.
Australia’s financial regulator will seek the High Court’s permission to appeal a lower court’s ruling favoring fintech firm Block Earner, which found the company’s crypto-linked fixed-yield earning service is not a financial product.
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission said on May 21 that it wants to ask the High Court of Australia to clarify what the definition of a financial product is and clarify the circumstances when an interest-earning product and the conversion of assets from one form to another are regulated.
“The definition of financial product was drafted in a broad and technology-neutral way, and ASIC believes it is in the public interest to clarify this,” the watchdog said.
“This clarification is important as it applies to all financial products and services whether they involve crypto-assets or not.”
On April 22, Federal Court Justices David O’Callaghan, Wendy Abraham and Catherine Button found that Block Earner’s crypto-linked fixed-yield earning product is not a financial product, a managed investment scheme or a derivative under the Corporations Act.
ASIC said the court will consider its application. Special leave is required in an appeal to the High Court, and it’s only granted in cases where it would answer significant legal questions or matters of public interest.
A Block Earner spokesperson told Cointelegraph the matter has now escalated to a “broader legal question” around the definition of a financial product, which extends “well beyond Block Earner, and the crypto sector.”
“We believe the Full Federal Court’s April ruling was a strong and well-reasoned decision that upheld the integrity of our operations,” the spokesperson said. “We remain confident in the soundness of that judgment and will respond to ASIC’s application through the appropriate legal channels.”
Legal saga ongoing since 2022
ASIC first launched legal proceedings against Block Earner in November 2022, arguing the company needed a financial services license to offer its yield product, which was available from March 17, 2022, until the company shut it down on Nov. 16, 2022.
Related: Australia outlines crypto regulation plan, promises action on debanking
In February 2024, an Australian court initially ruled the fintech firm would need a financial services license to operate its crypto yield-bearing products.
Another June 2024 ruling in Australia’s Federal Court released Block Earner from any financial penalties because it had “acted honestly” and pursued its legal opinions before launching the products, which ASIC appealed.
Block Earner appealed the Federal Court’s decision that it needed a financial services license on July 9, 2024.
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
VanEck plans to launch a private digital assets fund in June targeting tokenized Web3 projects built on the Avalanche blockchain network, the asset manager said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.
The VanEck PurposeBuilt Fund, available only to accredited investors, aims to invest in liquid tokens and venture-backed projects across Web3 sectors, including gaming, financial services, payments, and artificial intelligence.
Idle capital will be deployed into Avalanche (AVAX) real-world asset (RWA) products, including tokenized money market funds, VanEck said.
The fund will be managed by the team behind VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha Fund (DAAF), which oversees more than $100 million in net assets as of May 21.
“The next wave of value in crypto will come from real businesses, not more infrastructure,” Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager for DAAF, said in a statement.
Related: Tokenized stocks could top $1T in market cap — Execs
Thematic crypto funds
VanEck’s PurposeBuilt Fund is the latest in a series of funds from the asset manager and rivals designed to offer exposure to projects and companies in fast-growing segments of Web3.
On May 14, VanEck launched a new actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) to invest in stocks and financial instruments providing exposure to the digital economy.
In April, VanEck launched another ETF investing in a passive index of companies operating in the crypto space.
Asset managers such as VanEck are requesting the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) permission to list upward of 70 crypto ETFs.
The wave of ETF filings is in response to US President Donald Trump softening the agency’s regulatory stance toward crypto after Trump took office in January.
Avalanche RWA ecosystem
Avalanche has emerged as a hub for real-world assets (RWAs) and other institutional-oriented crypto projects.
Its interrelated networks, called subnets, allow institutions to run Ethereum-style smart contracts in a controlled environment. On May 16, Solv Protocol launched a yield-bearing Bitcoin token on the Avalanche blockchain, targeting institutional investors
Avalanche has around $1.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) as of May 21, according to data from DefiLlama.
“We’re seeing a shift away from speculative hype toward real utility and sustainable token economies,” John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, said in a statement.
Magazine: Danger signs for Bitcoin as retail abandons it to institutions — Sky Wee
A Democratic representative in the US Congress will support a blockchain bill at a time when many left-leaning lawmakers are blocking crypto-related pieces of legislation due to concerns with President Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.
In a May 21 notice, Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer said he had reintroduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a bill that “solidifies that digital asset developers and service providers that do not custody consumer funds are not money transmitters.”Emmer, a Republican, said Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres would co-lead the bill, making it a bipartisan effort in Congress.
“The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act reflects a thoughtful, bipartisan effort to get digital asset policy right,” said Torres. “While similar language was voted down in markup last Congress, we took that feedback seriously and returned with a smarter, sharper framework that protects innovation without compromising oversight.”
Representatives of advocacy organizations, including the Crypto Council for Innovation, Solana Policy Institute, Digital Chamber, Coin Center, DeFi Education Fund and Blockchain Association, said they would support the proposed blockchain regulatory bill. It was unclear whether Emmer and Torres had a majority of votes in the House of Representatives for the legislation to pass.
Torres has supported many bills and policies favorable to the crypto industry since assuming office in 2021. Together with Emmer, he has led the Congressional Crypto Caucus to advance crypto-friendly policies in the House since March.
A bipartisan blockchain bill amid memecoin concerns?
Other Democratic House members, including Representative Maxine Waters, have suggested they intend to block any legislation related to crypto and blockchain until Republicans address Trump’s connections to the industry, such as his family’s stake in World Liberty Financial and his TRUMP memecoin. The president is planning to host a dinner with up to 220 people holding the most significant amounts of his memecoin on May 22.
Related: Interest groups, lawmakers to protest Trump’s memecoin dinner
Cointelegraph reached out to Torres’ office for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
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