Halloween isn’t the only thing scaring British farmers this week.

Many say that the first Labor Party budget for more than a decade has been disastrous for small farms and their future.

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced that while there will still be no inheritance tax on combined business and farming assets worth less than £1 million, for anything rated above, there will be a 50% relief, at an effective rate of 20%, starting in April. 2026.

The National Farmers Union says the move could force farmers to borrow money or sell plots of land to pay the tax.

Paul Tompkins raises a herd of 400 dairy cows on a 300-acre (4.7 square mile) farm near York.

He, and thousands like him, fear the new £1m limit on inheritance tax relief on farmland will deprive his children of their farming inheritance.

“I thought this budget was going to help workers, and I consider myself and other small farmers to be among those workers,” he said.

“I should not be afraid of being cheated by the government and having to face the fact that my children may not be able to maintain this farm, which has been passed down through four generations, in the future.”

Shadow Secretary of State for Rural Affairs Steve Barclay posted on X that Labor had “broken a clear promise they made to our farmers”.

The government says only a small number of the largest areas will be affected, and some financial experts agree.

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said: “The Budget has reduced the amount of extra support available to farmers on farmland.

“That still means they will be treated much more generously than the rest of us and even more generously in fact than farms were in decades past.

“The changes will actually affect a remarkably small number of the most valuable farms. The majority will still be unaffected by this.”

But the Country Land and Business Association estimates up to 70,000 farms could be affected. There are around 209,000 farms in the UK, according to the government.

The Government has confirmed it will maintain the £2.4 billion agricultural budget for England in 2025/26, and says its commitment to farmers remains “firm”.

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But farmers like Paul Tompkins still feel betrayed by the chancellor and argue the only right thing she can do is to completely reverse her decision.