As speculation grows that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will halve inheritance tax at the spring budget in March, figures reveal that three-quarters of areas that pay the most are represented by Conservative MPs.
Five of the 60 constituencies with the highest inheritance tax bills in the UK are located in Sussex, all currently represented by Tory MPs in Westminster.
Top of the list for the county is the Lewes constituency, placing sixth nationally with an inheritance tax bill of £53 million in 2020-21, the last year where figures are available.
The amount paid by estates in the constituency was more than that paid across all of Northern Ireland, which reported a figure of £41 million over the same year.
Lewes is a marginal constituency with the Liberal Democrats, as Conservative MP Maria Caulfield wonning by just under 2,500 votes at the 2019 election.
Other Sussex seats high on the list are traditional Conservative strongholds, including Chichester, Arundel and South Downs and Wealden.
Sussex’s only non-Conservative constituencies were found near the bottom of the list, with inheritance tax bills of around £10 million.
Sussex constituencies by inheritance tax bill (2020-21) and current party of MP
- Lewes: £53 million (Conservative MP)
- Chichester: £39 million (Conservative MP)
- Arundel and South Downs: £36 million (Conservative MP)
- Wealden: £24 million (Conservative MP)
- Mid Sussex: £19 million (Conservative MP)
- Bexhill and Battle: £18 million (Conservative MP)
- Worthing West: £16 million (Conservative MP)
- Eastbourne: £15 million (Conservative MP)
- Horsham: £15 million (Conservative MP)
- Hastings and Rye: £11 million (Conservative MP)
- Hove: £10 million (Labour MP)
- Brighton Pavilion: £10 million (Green MP)
- Brighton Kemptown: £9 million (Labour MP)
- Bognor Regis and Littlehampton: £9 million (Conservative MP)
- East Worthing and Shoreham: £8 million (Conservative MP)
- Crawley – no data (Conservative MP)
Kensington in London reported the highest inheritance tax bill in the UK, with £108 million. The constituency was won by the Conservatives by 150 votes.
On the other end of the scale, Bedford – represented by Labour, reported the lowest inheritance tax bill at just £2 million in 2020-21.
The revelations, first reported in The Times newspaper, prompted outcry from Labour, who said a move by the Conservatives to cut inheritance tax would amount to “putting party first and country second”.
Inheritance tax is paid on the estate of someone who has died, with a threshold currently set at £325,000. Roughly four per cent of people pay the tax.
Rumours of a cut in inheritance tax, a move that would benefit the wealthy, has provoked some opposition from Conservatives as people suffer the burden of elevated costs after a sustained period of high inflation.
Ministers are also understood to be considering government support for longer-fixed term mortgages and a resurrected help-to-buy scheme in an attempt to turn around the Conservatives’ deficit in the polls.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will deliver the spring budget on March 6.
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