Speaking at a Countryside Alliance event on Monday about restoring trust between government and rural communities, Lord Blunkett (pictured) described the removal of agricultural property relief (APR) as an ‘imposition’, also asking farmers to ‘take the tractors out of Whitehall’.

Lord Blunkett said: ‘I am here this afternoon, not only to promote a reset, but to state the blindingly obvious that urban and rural are one in the same, we need each other’.

There has been widespread opposition from the farming community against the watering down of APR, introduced by former chancellor Rachel Reeves, with tractor demonstrations across the country in the months before its introduction in April 2026.