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
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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”.
Shadow chancellor says Labour ‘doesn’t understand the countryside’
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the Government “broke its promise” in imposing inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million.
Speaking at a photocall of Tory MPs and farmers as a large-scale protest kicked off in London over the changes, Mr Stride said: “We’re doing this to show solidarity with our farmers.
“We believe that this Government doesn’t understand the countryside or farming, broke its promise when it said that it would not be imposing inheritance tax on farms, it has now done that.
“That’s going to have a devastating impact on the farming sector up and down the country with family farms broken up.”
Mr Stride defended the Tories’ approach to the industry after some farmers claimed regulations brought in under the Conservatives have made the profession harder.
Farmers on tractors drive through Westminster ahead of protests
First generation farmer breaks down in tears talking about financial struggles
A farmer has broken down in tears as she speaks about hardships of farm life in south Wales.
Caroline Green, a first generation sheep and cattle farmer, says she now doesn’t want her son to take over the business as costs skyrocket.
She took over her farm after it was repossessed from a family and she fears the same will happen to her.
“There was no gate, no roof, no fencing neighbors cattle would just roam through. We built it up to a nice place we want to live and now the same could happen to us.”
Steve Reed stresses that only ‘the very wealthiest’ will face tax hikes
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has suggested that wealthy landowners who are the target of the tax change could plan to minimise their exposure.
He said: “The only ones that will be affected – it will be around 500 – will be the very wealthiest or the biggest farms.
“They can plan their tax affairs just like any other business plans their tax affairs as well.”
He added: “The vast majority of farms will not be affected by these changes to inheritance tax, but it’s only right that we ask the very wealthiest to pay their fair share, otherwise we can’t fix services like the National Health Service that farmers rely on and people living in rural communities, just like everybody else.”
Asked what his message to celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson was, Mr Reed said: “It’s very important that we listen to farmers, but I would say to farmers, this Government is backing farming in the UK. “
Sir Keir Starmer branded a ‘farmer harmer’ by crowds
Hundreds of farmers bussed from all over the country have now taken over Whitehall.
Some drinking whisky from a hip flask to keep their hands warm in the bitter November weather.
Many are angry at Sir Keir Starmer who has been branded a “farmer harmer”.
‘Please back down’, says Jeremy Clarkson to Labour government
Jeremy Clarkson - who runs Diddly Squat Farm in Chipping Norton - is at the farming inheritance tax protest in Westminster.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Clarkson was asked what his message is to the government.
“Please, back down,” he said simply.
Asked how bad this could be for farmers, he said: “It’s the end.”
Steve Reed dismisses claims Labour doesn’t understand farmers
Environment Secretary Steve Reed dismissed claims from critics that Labour did not understand the countryside.
He said: “This Labour Government has just allocated £5 billion to support sustainable food production in the UK.
“That’s the biggest budget of that kind in our country’s history and it shows that we’re backing farmers.
“We’ve gone further than that as well, £60 million to help farmers affected by flooding, we’re going to cut farmers’ energy bills by setting up GB Energy, we’re going to seek a new trade deal with the European Union so we can get food exports moving across the border again and we’re launching the first-ever cross-government rural crime strategy.
“All of that shows farmers that this is a government on their side and the changes to inheritance tax will affect only around 500 farms. The vast majority of farmers will pay nothing more.”
Tom Bradshaw suggests farmers could take more exreme action over tractor tax
Asked “what happens next” following today’s planned events, NFU chief Tom Bradshaw hinted at further, more extreme action from farmers, saying: “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.
“The ball is in the government’s court”, Mr Bradshaw warned. “They have to be the ones that now decide how they react to this.”
Speaking to journalists at the NFU mass lobby event in Westminster, he added: “I don’t want any of our customers any of our consumers not able to get the food they desperately need. But I also understand why emotions are running so high.
“I’ve never seen an industry that’s been betrayed the way this one is today. The anger, the mistrust, the disillusionment, the worry – how is that what this policy was designed to deliver?”
Environment secretary insists only about 500 farms will be affected
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has insisted that only a few hundred farms would be impacted, rather than the tens of thousands claimed by critics of the inheritance tax change.
He told the PA news agency: “The Government’s been very clear: about 500 farms will be affected and the vast majority of farms will pay nothing more under the new scheme.
“That figure has been validated now by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility and by the independent financial think tank the IFS.
“There are all sorts of other figures flying around that I don’t recognise.
“If farmers look at the facts they will see the vast majority of them will pay nothing more under the new scheme than they did under the old scheme.”
Kemi Badenoch says tax could be ‘end of British farming'
Kemi Badenoch has joined farmers and Conservative MPs outside the Houses of Parliament ahead of the large-scale protest.
In a tweet on social media, the party leader wrote: “Farmers are saying one thing: reverse this farm tax, or it’s the end of British farming as we know it, and the end of thousands of jobs and generations of knowledge.”
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