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”.
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.”
‘Reeves is refusing to engage’: NFU chief suggests Cabinet division over tractor tax
Tom Bradshaw has suggested there is Cabinet division over the hated tractor tax, claiming that Rachel Reeves has entirely “refused to engage” with farmers on the policy.
Asked by The Independent whether he believes there is a disconnect between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Treasury, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) chief said: “The very fact that we’re even arguing about the figures suggests that the foundations of this policy are very weak. We know that Defra figures show something very different to Treasury figures. Treasury are obviously working off historic claims.”
After meeting with environment secretary Steve Reed last night, he said it was clear that Defra was “not consulted” about the policy.
“There’s probably some very interesting conversations going on behind closed doors that we’re not privy to”, he added.
Policy ‘undermines’ farmers ability to produce more food
NFU president Tom Bradshaw told members: “We know that the public are overwhelmingly supporting farmers, the second most trusted profession.”
“They want to buy more British products but this policy undermines your ability to produce more food,” he said, urging farmers to thank members of the public for their support.
“But your key job today is to look your own MPs in the eye, make them understand what this policy means to you and the price they will pay politically if they toe the party line, in Westminster, in Cardiff, in Edinburgh, in Belfast, this policy has to be changed.
“Our request is very simple, this is a policy that will rip the heart out of Britain’s family farms, launched on bad data with no consultation, and it must be halted and considered properly.”
Police surround Whitehall streets as crowds gather
More police arrive to keep the hundreds of farmers spilling into the active road in Whitehall.
“You’re not needed here”, one farmer tells an officer who replies “It’s for your safety sir”.
The crowds are preventing trucks loaded with food bank donations to take off to the annoyance of organizers.
It’s a sea of tweed and flat caps and despite their obvious anger at the proposed inheritance tax crowds are good natured.
Pictured: Jeremy Clarkson arriving in central London to join farmers
In pictures: Tory leader Kemi Badenoch joins protest outside Westminster
NFU president urges government to get to ‘logical position'
NFU president Tom Bradshaw says 75 per cent of working farms will be caught within the scope of the change in inheritance tax.
He urges the government not to waste political energy on a policy that “will rip the rug under the very people who will deliver food security”,
“Let’s start from scratch and get to a logical position”, he urges the government.
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