Farmers have hoarded land for too long. Inheritance tax will bring new life to rural Britain | Will Hutton

Under the reforms to inheritance tax relief on agricultural land proposed in the budget, about 500 individuals who inherit land worth more than 2 m will join society and have inheritance tax levied on their bequest.

The National Farmers Union , Historic Houses , the Tory party, the rightwing media and, inevitably, Elon Musk have behaved as if the move represents a new communist dictatorship.

There is no acknowledgment of the potential wider benefits that go beyond the non-trivial contribution the tax will make to relieving the crisis in public services.

Ed Davey should not cosy up to Musk and co, inflaming the hysteria, but rather back Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves .

Labour needs to win the argument, and to be convincing that argument must be made from first principles.

Inheritance tax springs from the universally held belief that society has the right to share when wealth is transferred on death as a matter of justice.