Nigel Farage’s clever promise is bang on – your life’s work shouldn’t fund the welfare state – Kelvin MacKenzie

A few months ago, Nigel Farage casually mentioned that if he ever came into power — something that’s looking more possible now — he would get rid of inheritance tax completely. After seeing the latest figures from HMRC, it’s clear that day can’t come soon enough for a lot of people.

Right now, the government under Keir Starmer is collecting a record £8.2 billion in inheritance tax. That’s a huge jump compared to ten years ago when it was just £3.8 billion. Starmer is using that money to give massive pay rises to train drivers, some now making £93,000 for a five-day work week, and also to increase benefits for people who aren’t working. It feels like hardworking families are being squeezed harder and harder just to fund others.

And the situation is about to get even worse. Farmers, for example, are going to be hit hard. If their business is worth more than £1 million, they’ll have to pay a 20% tax when they pass it down to their children. This is crazy, considering farmers provide about 65% of the food we eat in the UK. Instead of punishing them with heavy taxes, we should be supporting them. If farmers ever decided to go on strike the way train drivers sometimes do, this country could be in serious trouble with food shortages. Thankfully, farmers are usually too responsible and hardworking to do something like that.

Starmer claims that the extra money from inheritance tax will go towards improving public services. But that’s just not true. In their last budget, Labour’s Rachel Reeves took £10 billion of taxpayers’ money and handed it straight to public sector workers. It doesn’t feel like that money is being used wisely or fairly.

What’s even more worrying is what’s coming in 2027. From then on, pension pots — the money you save for your retirement — will also be counted as part of your estate when you die. That means it’ll be taxed as well. Suddenly, many more ordinary people will find themselves paying inheritance tax, not just the very wealthy. It’s at that point that inheritance tax will become a massive political issue.

Nigel Farage was smart to notice this early on. His promise to scrap inheritance tax is going to be a huge vote winner. One prediction even says that taxing pension pots could bring in £65.4 billion over the next twenty years. That’s a massive amount of money being taken from families.

If the Conservative Party wants to stand a chance at the next election, their next leader — whether it’s Kemi Badenoch or someone else — will need to offer something just as bold or risk being completely wiped out.

Inheritance tax just feels wrong to a lot of people. You work hard all your life, pay taxes every step of the way, and when you finally pass on what you’ve built up to your family, the government swoops in and takes a big chunk of it. Most people would rather see their money go to their loved ones, not into the government’s hands — especially when they don’t trust how the government spends it.

In my own case, I want most of my money to go to my family, but I also want to leave some to Alleyn’s School in South London, where I went to school. I didn’t exactly shine academically and the school was probably relieved when I left, but I still want to support them, especially now that the government has slapped VAT on private schools in what feels like a class war move. I’d much rather my money help pay teacher wages or support school projects than end up in the hands of politicians like Angela Rayner.

Another strange thing that’s happened because of the big rise in house prices is that lots of parents will end up leaving their kids far more money than they ever inherited themselves. This is going to cause arguments in families, especially blended families where there are stepchildren and second marriages involved. Lawyers are already looking forward to a flood of High Court battles over wills because of the huge sums at stake.

Labour will keep saying they need inheritance tax to help pay for the welfare state. But a lot of people are tired of hearing that excuse.

In my own family, when my dad passed away, he left everything to his second wife and none to his children. I didn’t mind, but one of my brothers still feels hurt about it even today. It’s a reminder that money after death can cause real emotional pain, and heavy taxes just make it worse.

I even know a billionaire who spends a lot of time worrying about whether leaving huge amounts of money to his grandchildren would actually ruin their lives, making them lazy and spoiled instead of hardworking and driven. He’s right to worry. For extremely rich people, maybe the government should offer better tax breaks if they leave some of their wealth to universities or charities instead of just passing it all down. There would still be plenty left for the grandkids, and it would benefit society too.

The truth is, the super-rich always find ways to avoid inheritance tax, like moving to Monaco where they don’t have to pay it. Ordinary people can’t do that. They’re the ones stuck dealing with these unfair rules.

That’s why Farage’s promise to scrap inheritance tax is so clever. It speaks directly to people’s sense of fairness. Labour will try to argue that the government needs the money for welfare programs, but if they push that line too hard, it could just make Farage and the Reform Party even stronger.

In the end, your lifetime of hard work shouldn’t be stolen to fund what some people call the Skint Idle Dim Socialists — people who don’t want to work but are happy to take handouts funded by your efforts.