The BBC’s truth checking’ unit was under scrutiny last night after it quietly deleted a statement backing ministers’ claims in their tax-grab battle with farmers.
BBC Verify, a service set up to root out ‘misinformation’, wrote that the government’s figures were ‘likely’ to be right concerning the number of farms affected by the inheritance tax raid.
But after under-fire Keir Starmer trumpeted the BBC’s finding, triggering a political row about bias, the corporation quietly removed it from its website.
The Prime Minister is facing a growing backlash from farmers, celebrities and his own MPs over Labour’s decision to impose 20 per cent inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1million.
More than 10,000 farmers and high-profile supporters including Jeremy Clarkson and Lord Lloyd Webber descended on Westminster to protest against the controversial policy on Tuesday.
But there have been dramatically conflicting estimates about how many farms will be dragged into the tax changes announced in the Budget.
Ministers insist the reforms will only affect about 500 estates a year. But the Country Land and Business Association claimed 70,000 farms face being snared by the new regime with ‘devastating’ consequences for farming families.
Speaking to reporters at the G20 summit in Rio on Tuesday, the Prime Minister insisted ‘the vast majority’ of farmers would be unaffected, telling reporters: ‘All of you can check out what that means in terms of the impact – I think the BBC has already done it.
‘It means the vast majority of farms are unaffected by this and I think it’s just important we keep making that clear.’
BBC Verify – a service launched last year amid great fanfare ‘dedicated to examining the facts and claims behind a story to try to determine whether or not it is true’ – has backed ministers’ numbers.
It claimed the 70,000 figure was ‘almost certainly an overestimate’, and said the ‘true’ share of farms affected ‘is likely to be much closer to the Treasury estimates’.
Last night Shadow culture secretary Stuart Andrew said: ‘Taxpayers pay for the BBC to interrogate facts, not mindlessly parrot Government lines.
‘These are highly contested statistics on a policy which may have a profound impact on prices in the shops, Britain’s food security and rural life.
‘Farmers deserve better than the diet of half-truths they are currently being fed by the BBC. The matter should be immediately investigated and corrected.’
Nick von Westenholz, director of strategy at the National Farmers’ Union, said: ‘The bottom line is they have no idea how many farms will be affected. HM Treasury hasn’t done that assessment – and the BBC certainly hasn’t!’
A BBC source insisted they had not ‘backed’ anyone, but had drawn conclusions from conversations with tax experts including at the Treasury.
The BBC said: ‘This is an independent factual analysis, quoting a number of different organisations and individuals who have a range of different viewpoints.
‘It’s routine for us to update online articles, and we’ll continue to update our analysis of this policy as more information and explanation become available.
‘If the changes are material or change our conclusions, we add a note informing readers, for transparency.’
It came as Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner refused to rule out further increases to inheritance tax for farmers at yesterday Prime Minister’s Questions.
And she claimed it was ‘scaremongering’ to argue that more than 500 farmers will be affected by the inheritance tax changes.
It also emerged that Labour carried out no impact assessment before launching the tax raid on farmers. Meanwhile, a briefing note with ‘lines to take’ was circulated to Labour MPs instructing them to argue that rich farmers with valuable land should ‘pay their share’.
For 17 days, the ‘fact checkers’ at BBC Verify were adamant that the government’s figures – rather than the farmers’ – were ‘likely’ to be right.
But this bold claim quietly vanished from the BBC website after Sir Keir Starmer boasted of the BBC backing him.
Rural experts have argued the government’s figure of 500 estates being caught in the tax raid are misleadingly low.
They said the 500 was based on ‘agricultural property relief’ (APR), a tax break relating only to land and buildings, rather than valuable assets such as farm machinery.
While the new £1million tax allowance does encompass land, it also draws in ‘business property’ such as machinery.
A single combine harvester can cost up to £500,000 – potentially wiping out half of the £1million allowance and catching many more farms in the taxman’s dragnet.
On the BBC Verify website, an article devoted to combating ‘misinformation’ had been stating since November 2 that ‘the number of farms likely to be impacted each year is likely to be around 500’.
However, after the political row blew up on Tuesday night, the BBC changed the web article to remove this sentence.
Yet while the article has a section at the end informing readers about revisions – such as stating it had been updated on November 4 to correct hectares to acres – it made no reference to deleting the sentence about the government being ‘likely’ to be right.
The article also cites the claim that 70,000 farms will be affected, but adds that ‘it is not necessarily the right number to use’.
Critics have accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Secretary Steve Reed of not taking into account the effect of the rule changes to equipment such as tractors which many farmers claim tax breaks on under ‘business property relief’ (BPR).
The BBC Verify video quotes ‘official figures’ but the chart it displays shows only APR, not BPR.
The video says: ‘In 2022 around 500 claims were made for agricultural inheritance tax exemption’.
The BBC Verify reporter concludes: ‘So the true share of farms affected going forward is likely to be much closer to the Treasury estimates’.
Frank Smith, managing partner at Frank Smith & Co Solicitors, a specialist firm advising farming families, said: ‘Urban MP and Defra secretary Steve Reed claims just 500 farmers a year will be impacted by the changes announced in the budget, but their calculations have not taken BPR into account.’
Regarding BBC Verify, he said: ‘That’s the info the BBC has been fed by the government, they haven’t verified it that well, and they rely on it – and the viewers rely on it.’
A Treasury spokesman confirmed that the 500 figure related to estates claiming APR, but said the number of estates involving either APR, or BPR or both was around 2,000 in total – still vastly short of the 70,000 farms claimed by rural groups. The BBC said its analysis had included BPR.
A joint statement from Ms Reeves and Mr Reed said: ‘Farmers are the backbone of Britain, and we recognise the strength of feeling expressed by farming and rural communities in recent weeks. We are steadfast in our commitment to Britain’s farming industry because food security is national security.
‘It’s why we are investing £5 billion into farming over the next two years – the largest amount ever directed towards sustainable food production, rural economic growth and nature’s recovery in our country’s history.’