At the 2024 General Election, the Labour Party won an unprecedented 114 of the 250 rural constituencies across the country. From Northumberland to Cornwall, Labour MPs now represent vast swathes of rural Britain. Yet polling by the Champions for Rural Land and Business shows that this Government has spectacularly failed to support rural communities.
The most obvious attack on rural Britain has, of course, been the whole charade surrounding the proposals to introduce a 20% tax on farming assets above £1 million. Although Ministers have now, eventually, climbed down and raised the threshold to £2.5 million, this only came after months of damaging uncertainty for farming families (with one famer tragically even taking his own life). At a time when farmers are already facing soaring running costs and razor-thin margins, we should not be biting the hand that feeds us.
But the Government’s disregard for rural communities does not stop at the farm gate, however.
Across Mid Leicestershire, many of our beautiful villages now face real threats as a result of decision taken by this deeply anti-countryside Government.
First, Ministers have made it clear of their intention to strip villages of long-standing protections against excessive development. I fear that large areas of Leicestershire countryside will be concreted over, while inner cities and major urban areas are not seeing the same increases.
Second, at the heart of our villages lies the great British pub. These are not only places to eat and drink but an essential community hub. Yet under this Government eight pubs are closing every week across the UK, and this is only going to get worse. A punitive tax on jobs, the failure to extend the Conservative Retail, Hospitality and Leisure business rate relief and now the introduction of new drink-driving measures that will have next to no impact on road accidents but will push rural pubs and restaurants to the brink. It is little wonder that so many Labour MPs are barred from them.
Finally, and perhaps most concerningly for villages in Mid Leicestershire, our rural villages are facing a Local Government re-organisation crisis. It is clear that Labour politicians in Westminster and also in Leicester City Council would like to engulf Mid Leicestershire villages into the city boundaries. This would place these local services and potentially policing, following the scrapping of Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners, under the control of a city-focused Mayor.
How can residents in Anstey, Kirby Muxloe and Glenfield expect the Leicester City Mayor, who has only served in the city, to understand their needs and to protect their village identities?
These three examples lead me to ask a fundamental question, does the Government not understand rural life or just chosen not to care?
