Speeches by Murray.

“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Double Taxation Relief and International Tax Enforcement (Ecuador) Order 2024. It is a pleasure to serve on this Committee with you as Chair, Mrs Harris. The order before the Committee gives effect to a first-time double taxation convention with Ecuador. It wil…”

“I welcome the comments from the shadow Minister and his party’s support for this double taxation treaty. First, on Ecuador’s ratification of the DTC, Ecuador has indicated that it will complete the process by the end of this year, which I think gives the shadow Minister the timetable he was seeking. If this Committee s…”

“I have confidence in the way in which we have calibrated the policy. As I said to the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen), it has balanced the need to retain significant, generous provision of inheritance tax relief for family farms with ensuring that, at the same time, we fix the public finances in the fairest…”

“I will not try your patience, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I feel that my hon. Friend’s intervention relates to the debate in hand, as we have had to take a tough decision on taxation policy in order to fund our public services. Those public services are, of course, enjoyed by people across the country, including farmers …”

“The data we did not have before the general election was the £22 billion black hole that the hon. Gentleman’s party left in the public finances. He knows that, because it is acknowledged by the Office for Budget Responsibility that the full information was not shared with it. It has said that its forecast would have be…”

“I reassure the right hon. Gentleman, for whom I have a lot of respect personally, that we carefully considered how to calibrate the policy to ensure that significant relief from inheritance tax is still available to family farms, while at the same time fixing the public finances in as fair a way as possible.”

“I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “House” to the end of the Question and add: “thanks farmers for their immense contribution to the UK economy and the nation’s food security; welcomes the Government’s commitment of £5 billion to the farming budget over the next two years, the biggest budget for sustainable …”

“I point the right hon. Gentleman to the letter the Chancellor recently sent to the Treasury Committee, which sets out some of these figures in detail. Some of the confusion that he and other hon. Members have encountered might come from the fact that there are different sets of data. The set of data he may be referring…”

“I would like to make a bit of progress to explain some of the detail behind our policy, which may answer some of the questions that hon. Members are jumping to their feet to ask. We know that inheritance tax is always an emotive issue, and understandably so. It is a natural desire for people to want to pass on their as…”

“To address the right hon. Gentleman’s point, we recognise that agricultural and business property relief play an important role in supporting family farms, but the full unlimited exemption from inheritance tax has simply become unsustainable. The four most recent years-worth of data make clear why. The data shows that …”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the decimation of businesses during the Conservatives’ time in office. Businesses across the economy need stability, public finances on a firm footing and investment in our public services. That is what businesses across the country need to invest for the future and grow.”

“A lot of data has already been published. I mentioned the Chancellor’s letter to the Treasury Committee, and further details on the impact will be published alongside the draft legislation in the normal way. I suggest that the hon. Gentleman reads the letter to the Select Committee. As he and the his right hon. Friend …”

“I will take one more intervention and then I will make progress.”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the fact that some of the features of the current inheritance tax relief system mean that it is an attractive vehicle for tax planning to reduce inheritance tax liability. People who have wealth who have never been farmers and do not intend to become farmers have been usi…”

“My response to the right hon. Gentleman is the same as that to the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes). I believe he is looking at the data for the total value of farms, rather than for inheritance tax claims. The two are different things. For instance, a farm worth £5 million owned in…”

“I very much agree with my hon. Friend. He points out a repeated pattern of the Opposition: their total refusal to take any responsibility for the damage they caused over the past 14 years. They may wish it never happened; the British people disagree.”

“I am going to make some progress. I just set out some statistics that show how this tax relief is very concentrated in a small number of claims. In the context of the dire fiscal situation we inherited and the critical need to fix the public finances and get public services back on their feet, it cannot be right to mai…”

“The £3 million figure is what a typical couple could expect to pass on to their direct descendants using the various nil-rate bands and inheritance tax reliefs. I would advise any specific family to get advice from an accountant or financial adviser. In terms of the scale of reliefs, when we combine the inheritance tax…”

“I have met members of the National Farmers Union, representing the farming industry, a number of times since the Budget for detailed discussions. That has helped us to understand the impact that this policy will have and to ask for their support in communicating how it will work.”

“I am going to make some progress. I am going to continue to explain how some of the other exemptions within the inheritance tax system will benefit people affected by this policy.”