Starmer denies putting seven-acre field in trust to avoid inheritance tax

Sir Keir Starmer has denied putting a seven-acre field he bought into a trust, in a move which would have meant he did not pay inheritance tax.

The Prime Minister bought the land behind his parents’ house in 1996 to use as a donkey sanctuary, so his mother and father could care for the animals.

The Sunday Times reported he gave the land to his parents through a structure which meant when they died, the field’s value was excluded from their estate.

When asked if he put the land into a trust on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Sir Keir replied: “No, I didn’t.”

“I bought a field for my mum and my dad because they loved donkeys,” he said.

“My mum was very ill and she couldn’t move around anymore.

“She, by the end of her life, had her leg amputated and she could barely communicate.

“She was very, very ill. She loved her donkeys and I wanted her to be able to see her donkeys.

“I was a lawyer, I had quite a lot of money, I bought a field for £20,000 at the back of their house.

“I said, ‘Here’s your field. It’s yours for as long as you may live.’”

Sir Keir later added: “The idea of setting up some complicated trust for a £20,000 agricultural field which then housed four donkeys?

“It was so my mum, she was able to – they had a little outhouse at the edge of the field – and she was able, in the end, to see the donkeys.

“My dad built a little sort of porchway so he could wheel the wheelchair out so she could touch the donkeys. That’s what it was for. I gave it to them.”

Sir Keir has previously told the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards that he “immediately gifted the land” to his parents.

“But I did not transfer the legal title – that remained with me,” he added.

The Prime Minister sold the Oxted, Surrey, plot in 2022, he told the commissioner.