By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 12:18 BST, 28 September 2025 | Updated: 14:41 BST, 28 September 2025
Sir Keir Starmer today denied he bought a seven-acre field for his parents using a trust, in a move which would shield him from inheritance tax.The Prime Minister bought the land behind his parents' Surrey home for £20,000 in 1996 so his parents could create a donkey sanctuary.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.But the Prime Minister this morning insisted he merely brought the field to help his disabled mother care for animals.He told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme he did not use a trust, adding: 'I bought a field for my mum and my dad because they loved donkeys.'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.' The Prime Minister this morning insisted he merely brought the field to help his disabled mother care for animals The Prime Minister bought the land behind his parents' Surrey home for £20,000 in 1996 so his parents could create a donkey sanctuary He told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme he did not use a trust, adding: 'I bought a field for my mum and my dad because they loved donkeys'In the end, any financial arrangements for the field has no impact on the IHT bill for his parents' estate as it came nowhere near hitting the £1million threshold to become liable. Sir Keir previously told the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards he sold the Oxted, Surrey, plot in 2022. His tax returns for 2022/2023 show he sold it along with an adjacent strip of land for more than ten times what he paid for it more than 25 years previously. Sir Keir told the BBC: '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.
