Farmers’ protest live: NFU leader fights back tears as tractors block Westminster over inheritance tax rise

The tractors are lined up and ready to go.

Farmers are quickly jumping back into their vehicles and turning on the engines.

The noise is really something.

Hundreds of people gathered to hear the farmers give speeches at the protest, as Sir Keir Starmer answered prime minister’s questions in Parliament.

Farmers addresssed a crowd on the back of a pickup truck in the centre of the tractor convoy, opposite Downing Street.

Jeff Gibson, founder for Fairness for Farmers, said the “cruel family farm tax” was destroying the industry for their children.

“How can we say to the next generation before you start to work you’ll be paying 10 years of tax burden?” he said.

“What future does farming have?”

Farmer Gareth Wyn Jones said: “We are not going to pay the inheritance tax.

“Listen to the people before you go cold and hungry.”

The protest organisers have laid a wreath to symbolise the death of farming.

It was followed by two minutes of silence to remember farmers who have taken their own lives.

Tom Bradshaw, National Farmers’ Union president, said the chancellor has refused to engage in concerns over the proposed inheritance tax changes as farming leaders said they had no formal consultation before the Budget.

Mr Bradshaw told the Environment Committee today that everyone would work together to close any loophole, but added: “Until we know what the exam question is it’s very difficult. We’ve had multiple meetings since then, up to the Prime Minister. The Chancellor until then has refused to engage.”

He also said: “We did get wind that something was being discussed the Wednesday before the Budget and at that point we went public with our campaign to MPs. But there was no formal consultation at all.”

Robert Martin, national chairman at the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA), said they also made representations.

“We weren’t able to get in to see Rachel Reeves which would have been a huge help to us,” he said.

This picture released in a tweet by Met Police shows the scale of tractors that have arrived for the slow procession around Westminster, it starts at 12.45pm.

Keir Starmer stood up at PMQs in the knowledge that just yards from where he was standing farmers on tractors were protesting his “family farm tax”.

They had been noisily making their presence felt outside parliament for hours – in the hopes of putting pressure on the prime minister to change tax and scrap his inheritance tax raid.

But the Labour leader had no good news for them.

Tackled on the issue by Lib Dem leader Ed Davey, he stuck to the government’s line telling MPs “the vast majority of farmers will be unaffected, despite the scaremongering from the party opposite (the Conservatives)”.

Here we go then. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey asks Sir Keir Starmer if he will “change course and recognise the vital role that family farms play” as hundreds of farmers protest with their tractors outside Parliament.

The prime minister accuses opposition parties of fear mongering over the controversial tractor tax.

Responding at prime minister’s questions, Sir Keir said: “In a typical family case, the threshold is £3m so the vast majority of farms will be unaffected, despite the fear mongering of the party opposite.”

However, just minutes earlier at the Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, National Farmers Union chief Tom Bradshaw said he estimates that 75 per cent of farms will be hit by the levy.

The number of farmers and tractors has swelled near Westminster, with farmers at the head of the protest chanting “no farmers, no food”.

But no question to Sir Keir Starmer on farming just yet.

Welsh farmer and YouTuber Gareth Wyn Jones said the inheritance tax change would destroy British farming.

“A lot of these farms aren’t profitable as it is,” he said.

“I think we’ll see bankruptcies and we’ll see less food on the ground.”

This is the most tetchy PMQs since Kemi Badenoch became Tory leader.

She still believes that immigration is a good attack line but is hamstrung by the Tory failures on controlling either legal or illegal migrants.

The reason this is now at the top of the agenda is that Keir Starmer’s “Plan for Change” last week did not prioritise the issue.

Added to that his work as a lawyer and opposition shadow minister opposing controls on illegal migration and deportations still makes it difficult for Starmer to defend his record.

In truth though the one person who might be quietly smiling in the Commons during these exchanges is Nigel Farage whose main focus is immigration.

The two main party leaders trashing each other’s reputation on the issue reinforces his claims that Labour and the Tories have failed the country.

Sir Keir Starmer begins Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions by “welcoming” the fall of Syrian president Bashar Assad.

He tells the Commons: “Can I start by welcoming the fall of Assad? The people of Syria suffered for far too long under his brutal regime.

“What comes next is far from certain. We’ve been talking to regional and global allies to ensure that it is a political solution which protects civilians and minorities, and absolutely rejects terrorism and violence.”

Most family farms will not be able to benefit from a loophole that is used by the super rich to avoid inheritance tax, meaning smaller estates are likely to be hit especially hard by the government’s tax raid.

In order to avoid being hit with the levy, a widely used tactic by people facing inheritance tax is to pass down assets seven years before death - but many family farms will be unable to do so as a result of the ‘gifts with reservation’ clause.

The clause means that if a farmer passes down their estate but still benefits from it by either living on the property or using the returns to fund their lifestyle, they will still be taxed on it.

However, wealthy investors who have bought up farmland are unlikely to be living on the property, meaning they can pass down the assets and benefit from the loophole.

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