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”.
Reeves says farmers must help fund NHS as she refuses to back down ahead of mass protest
Rachel Reeves has refused to back down over the planned extension of inheritance tax to agricultural properties, telling farmers they must pay their share to fund public services including the NHS.
Her remarks come despite thousands of farmers descend on London for a major protest on Tuesday, held alongside a mass lobby of MPs in Westminster where National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw is expected to say that the betrayal on the tax changes is extraordinary.
The union chief will warn that farms producing the country’s food will need to be broken up and sold as a result of the policy, “because farmers simply won’t have the money to pay this tax any other way”.
Read the full article here:
Reeves says farmers must help fund NHS ahead of mass protest
Chancellor says farmers must pay ‘fair share’ as thousands descend on London for a major demonstration
Met police issue statement ahead of wider protes
A Met Police spokesperson said: “We have had positive discussions with the protest organisers who have confirmed their event will begin at Richmond Terrace, off Whitehall, at 11am on Tuesday.
“There will be speeches, before a procession to nearby Parliament Square.
“We will have officers deployed in the vicinity to ensure the event takes place safely, lawfully and in a way that prevents serious disruption.”
'Farmers already lumbered with debts'
At the back of the NFU coach is Karen Cox, who runs a 580-acre arable farm with her husband James near Tetbury.
She makes the point that many farmers are already dealing with the cost of succession without inheritance tax.
She has had to remortgage most of their land to pay her sister £3m after their father died in 2019.
The loan from the bank means they are repaying £125k to the bank each year.
“The farm is already lumbered with debts, changing this to inheritance tax will only make it even hard for the next generation,” she says. She’s calculated the impact of the Budget on her farm, and has a handwritten letter to show to her MP at the mass lobby.
'It feels like a betrayal'
Helping run today’s events for the NFU is Chris Farr, the union’s Gloucestershire county advisor.
He says the announced change to inheritance tax came as “complete shock”.
“Having had assurances from Steve Reed [farming minister] and Keir Starmer that APR [agricultural property relief] wasn’t going to be changed, we were all taken back.
“It has led to a massive level of concern, anger and disappointment - it feels like a betrayal.”
He said the NFU’s aim of the mass lobby was to get MPs “to understand the reality of what they have planned will mean for the countryside”.
“This is not about haranguing the MPs, it is about helping them understand what this means for the family farm.”
In pictures: Tractors descend on Westminster ahead of farmer protest
Farming industry treated with ‘contempt’ by Steve Reed, says NFU president
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has treated the farming industry with “contempt”, the president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said.
Tom Bradshaw told LBC: “The way he’s treated the industry with contempt in what he’s been writing has landed very, very badly.”
Of the meeting he had with Mr Reed on Monday, the union president said: “I hope the Secretary of State was listening, I hope the Government are listening, I want to sit down with the Chancellor and sort this mess out.”
Asked about how many farmers will be affected by the changes to inheritance tax, Mr Bradshaw said: “There’s huge mistrust in the numbers, even Defra and the Treasury can’t agree on the number.
“Our numbers suggest that 75 per cent of commercial farms, those farms producing this country’s food, are caught in the eye of this storm.”
On the seven-year gifting rule, Mr Bradshaw said the farmers in the “twilight of their careers” who may not expect to live for that amount of time “have been cut off at the knees”.
‘The tractor tax means we’re sleepwalking into food shortages’
When I was growing up in rural Lincolnshire, I remember my best friend’s dad would always use a certain saying. They lived right out in the fenland – among fields carpeted with cabbage and cauliflower, and giant skies that dwarfed the flat horizon. “You can’t catch old birds with chaff,” he’d warn. The sentiment is that the wise could not be easily fooled. The chaff – worthless husks of corn – would not suffice to convince the astute of a weak idea.
The phrase has come to mind a lot recently as family farms come under threat of the newly proposed tractor tax. Since the Budget, when Labour announced that there would be a 20 per cent tax hike on inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m, the countryside has been alight with fury.
Keir Starmer insists that the tax is there to catch any farmers buying up land to avoid inheritance tax and no one else – that only the “wealthiest 500 estates each year with smaller farms not affected”. The birds are not convinced.
Zoë Beaty talks to farmers who tell her of an industry in crisis:
‘The tractor tax means we’re sleepwalking into food shortages’
That’s the message thousands of farmers will deliver in a mass protest against Labour’s tax this week. Here, Zoë Beaty talks to some of them who tell her of an industry in crisis, why the proposed plans could have far-reaching consequences and that Keir Starmer needs to remember that you reap what you sow...
Do you support the ‘tractor tax’ on inherited farms?
The government’s proposed inheritance tax hike on farms has sparked a fierce debate between those who see it as a necessary fiscal reform and those who warn it could devastate family farming and the rural economy.
Critics, including the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), warn that this policy could jeopardise family farms, which make up approximately two-thirds of Britain’s agricultural base.
Now we want to know what you think. Is the ‘tractor tax’ a fair approach to reform inheritance tax, or does it risk dismantling the fabric of family farming?
Share your thoughts here — we’ll highlight the best responses as they come in.
165 MPs meeting NFU members at mass lobby
While there is a wider protest taking place from 11am, the NFU is concentrating on a mass lobby event taking place from 9am.
It will see 1,800 members meeting MPs across several locations, including Portcullis House.
They will use the opportunity to share their concerns over Labour’s decision to change inheritance tax rules on farmers.
Speaking to officials on a bus from the West Country this morning, I understand around 165 MPs have agreed to meet members. Those who have not accepted an invitation will be sent ‘green cards’ to come down to meet constituents.
Among those believed to be meeting NFU members is Labour’s MP for Forest of Dean, Matt Bishop.
Yesterday, Mr Bishop, who won his seat with a majority of fewer than 300 votes, said: “We have had to make difficult decisions to navigate the significant financial pressures inherited from the previous government, but I want to reassure my constituents that my focus on farming and rural issues remains unwavering.”
‘Catastrophic’ inheritance tax will impact nation’s food security
Changes to inheritance tax paid by farmers are “catastrophic” for the agricultural sector, a farmer has said.
Thousands of farmers are descending on the capital to protest against planned changes to agricultural property relief.
Farmers are arriving at Church House Conference Centre where NFU members are meeting on Tuesday morning.
Tom Walton, a farmer from Buckinghamshire, said: “My motivation is to try and engage with the Government to make them understand why the changes that they’ve made in the Budget are so catastrophic for the agricultural sector and the nation’s food security in general.
“This is likely to be the first of many engagements that we have with the Government. If today is successful, then that’s terrific, and if not then we will continue to apply pressure.”
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