Andrew Lloyd Webber was among the protesters at a farmers’ rally in London this week, hitting out at the “confused” government for its inheritance tax changes.
The composer claimed that he had worked on a farm for 40 years but his decision to attend the protest was “not about him”.
He told GB News that it is a “myth” that farmers are “swimming in cash” as he called for the Labour Government to reconsider its position, adding that his biggest fear was farms potentially ending up in the hands of “outsiders”.
“In the longer term, what will happen is they’ll all be bought by foreigners, probably outsiders”, he said.
“People who aren’t buying it for the love of the countryside. They’re buying it purely as a long term investment.”
Reminders that Lloyd Webber was one of the Tory peers that was jetted in by the Conservative government in 2015 to help support George Osborne’s plan to reduce tax credits in the House of Lords have been circulating on social media in the aftermath of the farmers’ protest.
The composer reportedly flew in first class from New York in what proved to be a pointless attempt to bolster the government’s numbers ahead of the vote.
Lloyd Webber, worth an estimated £650 million, was recorded as voting against Baroness Hollis’s motion to delay the bill for three years.
It was claimed that Lloyd Webber, ennobled as a life peer in 1997 and who voted once before that in 2013 for the same-sex marriage bill, flew first class back to London in time for the crucial vote on the Chancellor’s tax credit reductions.
A spokesperson for Lloyd Webber said the peer had travelled to London “at his own expense to attend the opening night of Cats”.
“He voted last night because he feels that it is important for democracy that the House of Lords should not override decisions made by the elected House of Commons,” the spokesperson said.
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