Victoria Atkins: Rural and coastal communities cannot withstand the battering Labour is giving them

Victoria Atkins is Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

When Kemi Badenoch became Leader of the Opposition, I asked to serve as Shadow Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. After running a budget the size of Greece’s GDP as Health Secretary, some might question my move to the Defra portfolio – often seen as a junior Cabinet role with a “modest” £8 billion budget.

That’s not how I see it. DEFRA covers the essentials: the food we eat, air we breathe and water we drink. It protects the countryside, coasts and seas for future generations, and supports the people and businesses behind them. These are core Conservative issues and vital to national security.

Rural and coastal Britain now faces a new threat: a city-centric socialist government that neither understands nor values them. The most obvious assault is the Family Farm Tax. Since the election, Labour has undermined the rural economy. In the Chancellor’s Budget of broken promises, they targeted family farms and businesses with a death tax on those at the front line of our food security.

It was a Conservative government that introduced Agricultural and Business Property Relief to help families pass down farms and enterprises as many are asset-rich and cash-poor. This principle-free Labour government’s plans will reverse that progress.

The economic impact – suppressing investment and growth – is bad, but the human impact is worse. A coroner’s Inquest has found recently that a farmer took his own life over fears about these tax changes. I’ve heard from advisers, friends and relatives of others in distress. Labour’s tax policies are causing people to contemplate suicide and even decline cancer treatment. How can ministers and MPs look themselves in the mirror?

Family farms and businesses have this pledge from the Conservatives: we will axe the Family Farm and Family Firm taxes to protect our food security and preserve generational businesses.

The rise in employer National Insurance contributions hits the countryside too. It’s a Jobs Tax. In the last quarter alone, 100,000 jobs were lost, including roles in farming, hospitality, and small manufacturing – key rural sectors. They also quietly scrapped support which helped locals save rural pubs. These are social hubs, employers, and vital to community life. Without support, many will be boarded up for good.

Labour’s disregard for the rural economy is no accident; it’s a symptom of a governing party who appointed an Environment Secretary in the pocket of Number 10. There is no evidence that Steve Reed defends the countryside from the Chancellor.

That’s why we shouldn’t be surprised when Labour makes chaotic decisions with no prior engagement – like cancelling the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme overnight. This is the scheme which replaced the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and paid farmers to preserve our countryside.

Farmers cannot plan for the long term if support is yanked away without warning. They are custodians of 70 per cent of the UK’s land and without them, we will fail environmental goals and risk our future food security.

If the Budget was bad Labour’s neglect was clear in the Spending Review. The Chancellor didn’t mention Defra once. Likely because there was no good news: Defra was one of Whitehall’s biggest losers. The review revealed £100 million in annual farming cuts and a merger of farming and nature budgets making it very hard to track losses.

No mention of the Family Farm Tax. No real rural plan. No detail on how cuts will hit communities. That puts nature, farming, and food security at risk. Our rural and coastal communities also face uncertainty from Labour’s trade deals.

British beef producers now face 13,000 metric tonnes of tariff-free American beef. American farmers are subsidised, operate on different economies of scale, and play by different rules and standards nor do they face the Family Farm Tax. Meanhile British farmers are being undercut while Labour saddles them with more taxes. Donald Trump wrote the book on the art of the deal. Sir Keir Starmer folded.

On our coastline, fishermen are furious about Labour’s 12-year deal with the EU. Starmer gave away our fisheries, showing no concern for coastal families who face down foreign trawlers daily. Whilst the Conservatives were working towards a better deal, Labour sank the industry. This has long-term consequences for both our economy and marine environment which will be felt long after this Prime Minister ultimately has to resign.

This is why our Policy Renewal Programme is so important. Against this backdrop, my job is to build a hopeful, forward-looking vision for our countryside and coast.

As part of the programme, my team and I are touring the UK, gathering ideas from farmers, fishermen and rural businesses. We’re hosting events in auction marts, attending agricultural shows, and visiting farms across the country. We have the energy, enthusiasm and determination to develop policies for the future of Britain.

Rural and coastal communities must be central to the next Conservative manifesto. That means a full review of the factors shaping their prosperity.

But this isn’t just Defra’s job. As Labour’s weak Environment Secretary has shown, you need full Cabinet support. Improving rural life – from economy and infrastructure to housing, education, and healthcare – needs a joined-up government approach. We are working to build that. And I want to hear from you.