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Starmer denies sheltering £320k donkey field from inheritance tax
Sir Keir Starmer denies using a trust to avoid inheritance tax on a seven-acre donkey sanctuary field valued at £295,000, maintaining it was bought solely for his parents' care.
- Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer sold a seven-acre agricultural field in Oxted, Surrey, in 2022 that he bought in 1996 for £20,000 to create a donkey sanctuary for his ill mother and father.
- The Sunday Times claimed Starmer arranged the property in a way intended to exclude it from inheritance tax after transferring use to his parents, a claim he refutes by stating he kept legal ownership and did not establish a trust.
- Starmer explained on the BBC he gifted the field to his parents because they loved donkeys and his mother was seriously ill, adding the idea of a complicated trust for a small agricultural field was unlikely.
- He said, “I said here’s your field, it’s yours for as long as you may live,” and acknowledged he paid £52,688 in capital gains tax on the sale in December 2022.
- The controversy arises amid widespread inheritance tax struggles and echoes the resignation of deputy Angela Rayner, threatening Starmer’s leadership with accusations of hypocrisy if avoidance claims persist.
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The IndependentReposted by 
The Independent (US)
The Independent (US)Starmer denies putting seven-acre field in trust to avoid inheritance tax
The Prime Minister bought the land behind his parents’ house in 1996 to use as a donkey sanctuary
·London, United Kingdom
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Total News Sources9
Leaning Left5Leaning Right3Center0Last UpdatedBias Distribution63% Left
Bias Distribution
- 63% of the sources lean Left
63% Left
L 63%
R 37%
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