Farmers’ protest live: Police probe tractors breaking barrier as Clarkson says inheritance tax a ‘hammer blow’
Farmers from across the country have travelled to London this morning to join protests over changes to inheritance tax rules
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Metropolitan Police have said tractor drivers who ploughed through barriers at the farmers’ protest in Westminster will be reported.
Scotland Yard said that they had been engaging with those driving the vehicles but said that driving through a no entry sign was “not acceptable”.
Taking to the stage, Jeremy Clarkson urged Rachel Reeves to admit her proposed inheritance tax hikes for farmers was a “mistake”, as he described it as a “hammer blow” to the agricultural community.
Speaking to protesters on stage in Whitehall, the TV presenter said: “For the sake of everybody here, and all the farmers stuck at home today paralysed by a fog of despair by what’s been foisted upon them, I beg the government to accept this was rushed through, wasn’t thought out, and was a mistake.”
First unveiled in chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget, the plans to impose inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1m have sparked fury among rural communities, who have contested the government’s assertion that small family farms will not be impacted by the changes.
National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw said an estimated 75 per cent of commercial farm businesses “were caught in the eye of this storm” of a policy which will “rip the heart of family farms”.
How out of pocket will farmers actually be?
The government wants farmers to pay the tax on assets above £1m apiece at a new rate of 20 per cent - less than the 40 per cent most others will pay. Yet before the Budget, they paid nothing on land under agricultural property relief with no limit.
The allowance comes on top of the £500,000 a typical homeowner gets if they leave their home to their children or grandchildren, so a married couple can shelter up to £3m from HMRC, a sum which will exclude most farms.
The NFU says the change, which will come into effect in April 2026, will force many farmers to sell their family farms to pay the tax bill. It claims that the change was pushed through without any consultation from the farming community.
Read the full analysis here:
Inheritance tax: How out of pocket will farmers actually be?
The government wants farmers to pay the tax on assets above £1m apiece at a new rate of 20 per cent
‘It’s become so tough I’m looking for a second job’: Inside the farming crisis
I got into farming because I love it. But it’s got so hard now to make enough money, I’m looking to get a second job.”
Chris Callow started raising livestock as soon as he left school, aged just 17. Now, aged 37, he and his wife, Jaz, own a small farm raising cattle and sheep near Axbridge in Somerset.
The couple have ambitions to expand the business and pass it on to their six children – but all is not going to plan.
Farmers tell Alex Ross that Rachel Reeves’ Budget ‘tractor tax’ is the latest blow to a family industry struggling to survive:
‘It’s become so tough I’m looking for a second job’: Inside the farming crisis
Farmers tell Alex Ross that Rachel Reeves’ Budget ‘tractor tax’ is the latest blow to a family industry struggling to survive amid rising costs and extreme weather – as thousands prepare to descend on Westminster this week
Watch: Jeremy Clarkson joins farmers’ ‘tractor tax’ protest in Westminster
Full story: NFU chief hints farmers could take more extreme action
The general secretary of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has hinted that more extreme action could be taken if the government does not backtrack on its plan to extend inheritance tax to agricultural properties.
Asked “what happens next” following Tuesday’s planned events – which has seen an estimated 20,000 people descend on Westminster to urge the government to backtrack on the levy – Tom Bradshaw said: “I think you’ll have all seen the media reports about what farmers across the United Kingdom think they should be doing next.”
It comes as farmers have threatened the government with “militant action” over the policy, which they argue will cause food shortages and the breakup of family farms.
Read the full article here from political correspondent Millie Cooke:
NFU chief hints farmers could take more extreme action after inheritance tax protest
More than 10,000 farmers have descended on Westminster to urge the government to backtrack on the levy
Environment secretary says many protesters are ‘wrong’ about policy
The Environment Secretary has said many farmers protesting in Westminster over changes to inheritance tax are “wrong” about the policy.
Appearing before MPs in the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Steve Reed was told there are “a lot more than 500 (farmers) here saying they’re going to be affected” and asked whether they were wrong.
He replied: “Well, assuming these projections from HMRC, validated by the OBR and IFS, are correct then many of them, probably happily, are wrong because there are things that they can do to plan their tax affairs as most businesses or asset owners would do to limit their liability.
“The numbers I’ve heard bandied around are enormous and very, very frightening if people were to believe them.”
He said figures being used by critics were based on Defra data on the value of farms “and then people have drawn a straight line to an inheritance tax liability, but you can’t do that, because ownership is much more complex than one person, one farm”.
He added: “Of course we want family farming to continue, just as it always has done.”
Farmer’s daughter says family farm will be lost over Budget changes
A farmer’s daughter said the changes to agricultural inheritance tax will prevent her and her brother from taking over their family farm.
Jen, from Yorkshire, who did not give her surname, told the PA news agency after a protest in central London on Tuesday: “I’ll be seventh generation on our farm and essentially, if the Budget goes through, then that means that I won’t be able to take her over my family farm because between me and my brother we would have to sell up to be able to pay the tax.
“It’s something we’ve both been passionate about from when we were little kids, ever since we could walk, always been involved – it’s a lifestyle.”
The 24-year-old said they would have to pay approximately £1.2 million if the Government does not scrap the tax changes.
“We have spoken to our accountant, solicitors, and once something happens to our parents – unless there is some change, unless there’s something we can do – then it’s not possible for us,” she said.
“The logistics of it for us to keep going just isn’t financially viable at all, even with an outside job, you still wouldn’t be able to bring in enough money to be able to pay that off.”
Make no mistake – the so-called ‘tractor tax’ isn’t just bad news for farmers...
I never imagined that farmers like me would need to go to London in order to protect our future livelihoods, but here we are. Contrary to what the government would have you believe, the recently announced inheritance tax changes will impact a vast many – it isn’t just an elite few.
We live on my husband’s family farm in West Meon, Hampshire. My husband has been here for 51 of his 53 years – and it’s terrifying to think how our lives are going to change. My father-in-law is still working at the age 82, and we had all hoped the farm would, in time, pass down to our two daughters to continue producing good quality, farm-assured beef and lamb for local people to enjoy.
Now we will face selling off part of the farm to pay the so-called “tractor tax”. And the bleak reality that neither us nor our girls will be able to make a living through the farm moving forward.
Read the full analysis from Victoria Cobden here:
Make no mistake – the so-called ‘tractor tax’ isn’t just bad news for farmers...
...food supplies and rising costs will affect us all, writes farmer Victoria Cobden. We are custodians of the land, not tax-dodgers –and if I don’t join today’s protests in London, there will be no land left
Jeremy Clarkson says farmers took a ‘hammer blow to the head'
Addressing the farmers’ protest in Westminster, TV presenter and farmer Jeremy Clarkson said he had come to understand about farming how “unbelievably difficult it is, and dangerous, and cold”.
Farmers faced costs, pressure from environmentalists and regulations, and “we have all these complications and costs, and there’s very little money in it as you know – and then we got the Budget”, he said, to boos from the crowd.
“I know a lot of people across the country in all walks of life took a bit of a kick on the shin with that Budget. You lot got a knee in the nuts and a hammer blow to the back of the head.”
How many farmers will be affected by the inheritance tax changes?
Labour says three-quarters of estates will not be affected by the upcoming changes, but campaigners have taken issue with this, reports my colleague Albert Toth.
According to Treasury analysis, around 500 estates will be impacted by the changes, with just the top 7 per cent of claims accounting for 40 per cent of the total value of the relief fund.
A release from the department adds: “It is not fair for a very small number of claimants each year to claim such a significant amount of relief, when this money could better be used to fund our public services.”
However, the Country Land and Business Association has said it is closer to 70,000 farms that will be affected. The new measure will mean “damaging family businesses and destabilising food security,” they add.
Economists have said this figure is slightly misleading. The 70,000 number does not reflect how many estates will have to pay inheritance tax each year, but rather how many are could be valued at over £1m today.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says: “The changes will affect a remarkably small number of some of the most valuable farms.”
Why are farm owners demonstrating over inheritance tax?
From April 2026, landowners who inherit agricultural assets worth more than £1m will have to pay 20 per cent inheritance tax (IHT) on them. These assets were previously entirely exempt from the tax under the agricultural property relief law.
Under the new rules, the 20 per cent levy – which is half of the standard 40 per cent rate – will be charged on assets above the £1 million threshold only. Also unlike regular IHT, the levy can be paid in interest-free instalments over a ten-year period.
The exemption is stacked with other IHT relief measures. Inheritance tax is already not paid if the value of the estate being passed on is worth under £325,000, plus £175,000 for a home under certain conditions.
For a farm owned by two people, this means the effective tax-free amount passed on is £3m when combining both their allowances plus each getting the £1m agricultural relief.
My colleague Albert Toth has more details here:
Farmers’ protest: Why are farm owners demonstrating over inheritance tax?
Tens of thousands of farm owners expected to hold major demonstration in London on Tuesday
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments