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”.
Jeremy Clarkson’s production crew spotted at farmers’ protest
Clarkson’s Farm fans could be given a political glimpse into farming life in season five, as it’s reported that the Amazon crew filming Jeremy Clarkson’s appearance at the farmers’ protest in Westminster.
The production crew are capturing the former Top Gear host and some of his Clarkson’s Farm co-stars at the demonstration on Tuesday for the show’s forthcoming season, according to Deadline.
It’s estimated that between 10,000 and 40,000 people are protesting against the Labour government’s proposed inheritance tax hikes, which Clarkson has said could be “the end” for farmers.
Read the full article here:
Jeremy Clarkson’s production crew spotted at farmers’ protest
Former ‘Top Gear’ presenter arrived at Westminster protest joined by Amazon filming crew
Watch: Farmers drive through London with their tractors
Rachel Reeves’s flawed inheritance tax for farmers demands a rethink
After revealing £40bn of tax rises on business and the better-off in last month’s Budget, Rachel Reeves could – just about – argue that “working people” had not been directly affected.
But anyone in the government who thought her decision to impose inheritance tax on some family farms would be without consequences needs to think again.
It is increasingly obvious that the chancellor was unwise to include farmers on her hit list by announcing that, from April 2026, agricultural estates worth more than £1m will face an effective 20 per cent rate of inheritance tax – half the usual 40 per cent rate.
Read the full editorial here:
Rachel Reeves’s flawed inheritance tax for farmers demands a rethink
Editorial: Labour should find a better way to end a tax dodge by super-rich landowners who are using agricultural property relief to pass on their fortunes
NFU chief accuses Reeves of failing to engage with farmers
Industry leaders have accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of refusing to engage over the issue.
Speaking to journalists in Westminster, National Farming Union president Tom Bradshaw said: “The longer they leave this hanging, the more I start to think it’s vindictive, rather than miscalculated.”
But ministers have argued the revenue is needed to help fix public services and plug a £22 billion fiscal “black hole” left behind by their Tory predecessors which they say only became apparent after they entered government.
The IFS, which has been calling for reforms to inheritance tax, backed the Government’s measures.
David Sturrock, senior research economist at the think tank, said: “If we have an inheritance tax it should apply equally across all types of assets.
“Exemptions and reliefs cause unfairness and distort ownership and investment in undesirable ways.
“Inheritance tax relief for agricultural and business assets provides a tax incentive for wealth to be held in these forms and for land to be used for agricultural purposes by those who want to pass on wealth to their heirs.”
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
In pictures: Today’s farmer protests in Westminster
'I'm too hyperactive to work in an office' Young farmer's fear for future
Lucy Harding, a fifth-generation dairy farm in Somerset, told The Independent: “A lot of us don’t make money we do it because they enjoy feeding the nation. We have no money and we will have to sell up with this tax.
“So many people have had to sell their livestock that they love and care about even before all this.
“There have already been so many suicides and there could be more. Farmers aren’t good at talking about their feelings.”
Asked if she could work in an office if her family were forced to sell up, she said: “I’m bred to be a farmer like how a breeding cow is bred to breed.
“I’m too hyperactive I genuinely don’t know what else I could do. The future is shady with all the regulations, all the other countries like New Zealand we have to compete with don’t have the same standards and can then undercut us.”
For born farmers like us it’s not about the value of the land, it’s about the legacy
My Dad could remember my granny tucking him into bed during the Second World War and saying: “There you are. Your tummy is full, you are warm in bed with a roof over your head. There is no more that I can do for you.”
In that war, this country relied on Atlantic convoys to bring in food which was not available. “Dig for Victory” was the saying as everyone started to grow vegetables at home.
This was the time that my Dad was taken out of school, at the age of eight, to help with the harvest, and when the government learned the importance of food security.
A lot of people wouldn’t get out of bed for the money we make. We’re born farmers. It isn’t about the value of the land; it is about legacy. When my Dad died in 2021, he believed that the farm would be passed to the next generation. His reward for a lifetime of hard work and investment would be the opportunity for his grandson and those beyond to continue and build.
Read letters from our readers here:
For born farmers it’s not about the value of the land, but the legacy
Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk
Farmers may evolve tactics to get message heard
After the peaceful march on Whitehall some farmers were unsure as to what effect it would have on the Government.
Asked if their tactics have to evolve to get their message heard, one female dairy farmer from Essex said: “We see France and Germany and how effective they are. Their farmers get stuff done. I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Other farmers spoke glowingly of tactics employed by groups like Just Stop Oil to get attention.
One said: “If you go back in history you see the farmer’s revolt coming to London with their pitchforks and axes and all that.But that’s not the way it is anymore.
“Just Stop Oil everyone hates them. They are tiny - under one percent of population but they get so much attention.”
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