Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Rankin Excerpts

Tuesday 1st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

My hon. Friend will have seen the Prime Minister’s work to reset relations with the EU. She mentions the single trade window, and it is the Government’s intention to deliver that. More widely, the Government are committed to minimising the administrative burdens and frictions experienced by businesses trading internationally.

[Jack Rankin (Windsor) (Con)]

T7.   We all know that there is a difference between welfare cuts and welfare reforms. These cuts were the maths of Treasury mandarins. It is the same thinking that saw winter fuel payments taken from pensioners. Now that the Government have U-turned on both of those, when will they finally back British farming and U-turn on the family farm tax?

[Rachel Reeves]

The problem with the Conservatives is that they support all the funding, but they do not support any of the ways of funding it. Agricultural property relief means that estates worth more than £3 million will now be taxed at half the rate at which inheritance tax is usually charged. That can be repaid over a 10-year period, interest-free. I think that is the right and fair settlement, given the fiscal environment we face.

Family Businesses

Jack Rankin Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lewis Cocking]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I go out and speak to farmers and small business owners, as he does in his constituency, and I have met not one who thinks the Government are on the right path. I do not know who Labour Members speak to in their constituencies because—

[Jack Rankin (Windsor) (Con)]

Trade unions.

[Lewis Cocking]

What my hon. Friend says from a sedentary position is probably correct. Businesses and farmers in my constituency think that the Government have sold them down the river and led them up the garden path—they are doing things that they did not think they would do when they were trying to get into power. We have not heard from the Government what they are doing to support businesses and family businesses.