The government has delivered an early Christmas present to farmers by modifying the new rules on inheritance tax. Or that’s one way of looking at it. The other is that it’s a huge political U-turn, the latest of many, after months of digging in and insisting there was nothing to see here.

Following talks last week between Keir Starmer and Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers Union, the government has increased the threshold at which IHT will apply from £1 million to £2.5m. It allows spouses to pass on £5m worth of assets between them before being hit by inheritance tax.

The number of estates affected will fall from 375 to 185, so while it’s not a total solution, but farmers regard it as a step........

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