{"id":3557,"date":"2026-06-18T13:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3557"},"modified":"2026-06-18T13:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:15:08","slug":"what-happens-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/what-happens-next\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today marks the day of the Mackerfield by-election – what some have called the most important by-election in a generation (perhaps ever!).<\/span><\/p>\n

At this stage, Andy Burnham is the odds-on favourite to win. Assuming he does, it feels as if it’s not a question of if, but simply when the Labour leadership contest will be triggered. In that contest (assuming we have all of the expected runners and riders) Burnham is once again odds-on favourite.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given all of the above, it seems like a reasonable assumption that he will be the next Prime Minister. There is also a chance he offers Angela Rayner the Chancellor job as the consolation prize for not winning the leadership contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assuming we have this duo in the 2 most powerful offices in the country, our attention then has to turn to what this means for Estate Planning and Inheritance Tax. While neither of them has been hugely vocal on the subject, there are a few things we can say are almost for certain…<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Both of them sit somewhat to the left of the current duo of Starmer & Reeves on the political spectrum<\/p>\n

2. As a result, we have to assume they are not going to improve anything when it comes to IHT rules, rates of allowances, but they could well be more draconian in their approach.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, the status quo really seems to be as good as it’s going to get for a good while. The situation could easily get worse (much worse), but it is almost certainly not going to get any better.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will continue to beat this drum until I am blue in the face, but I really do think the time is now for people to get their Estate Planning in order.<\/span><\/p>\n

We still have a whole range of different planning tools and options at our disposal, many of which have significant scope and flexibility. The real question is how long will this remain the case?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my view it may not be too much longer – I would suggest you plan accordingly and make hay while the sun shines!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today marks the day of the Mackerfield by-election – what some have called the most important by-election in a generation (perhaps ever!). At this stage, Andy Burnham is the odds-on favourite to win. Assuming he does, it feels as if it’s not a question of if, but simply when the Labour leadership contest will be… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","wp-sticky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3557"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3563,"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3557\/revisions\/3563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buckinghamgate.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}