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”.
NFU is focused on mass lobby
NFU is putting on coaches for farmers to attend a mass lobby at Church House from 9am.
It will see 1,800 registered members engage with their MPs in a series of meetings where they will aim to get their opposition across on the changes in inheritance tax.
The NFU is also aware of the larger protest taking place from 10am from Richmond Terrace, with president Tom Bradshaw expected to give a speech.
“Our focus for the 19th November remainson supporting our members by holding a mass lobby so they can meet their MPs to stop the family farm tax that stands to cause so much harm to British farming as we know it,” a spokesperson said.
Watch: Farmer predicts serious food shortages
‘Day of all days'
We’re 15 minutes into our journey from Cirencester to London, via a stop at Wantage, when Chris Farr, NFU Gloucestershire county adviser, issues the first rallying call of the day.
Standing between the seats on the half-full coach, Mr Farr said: “As President Eisenhower said on D-Day, this is the day of all days.”
He tells farmers attending the mass lobby that it’s important for everyone to have their say.
“This is incredible personal,” he says. “It is different for everyone, those with big or small farms, we all have a story, and we need them to listen to us.”
Farmers on their way to London
I’m on board a coach taking around 20 farmers from Cirencester to head to London for a mass lobby aimed at reversing a government decision to introduce inheritance tax for some farms.
The coach is one of five put on by the NFU in the southern region, with groups also leaving from Exeter and Dorchester.
It’s an early start but the coach is full of chatter ahead of today’s action.
‘Complete disillusionment and distrust’ among farmers, NFU president warns
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said the union’s mass lobby at Westminster will aim to get MPs to push the government to reverse the changes, which had left older farmers in particular in the “cruellest of predicaments”, unable, for example, to take advantage of the seven-year exemption for gifting assets.
Speaking ahead of the event in which three groups of 600 NFU members will have the opportunity to speak to MPs in Westminster, he said: “It’s absolutely unacceptable, the human impact of this, the pressures they have put on these people who have given everything to this country.”
The NFU president added: “There’s a complete disillusionment and distrust, and feeling of betrayal, that [the government] doesn’t understand food production or even want to understand food production.
“Farmers are cross, they’re worried, they feel they’ve nothing to lose, I don’t know where this ends,” he said, adding it was within the power of the government to take the next step.
"I don't believe the Government have any choice but to rethink this policy," he said.
Rally organiser accuses government of ‘not knowing their own figures'
Olly Harrison, one of the organisers of the rally in London, said of the government: “They don’t know their own figures, they have not done any homework whatsoever.
“It’s embarrassing for them, how little research they’ve done on this before they brought it in.”
He warned the move could destroy UK food production, with family businesses in food processing and retailing, as well as farming, at risk from the changes.
Tuesday’s rally aims to show “this is what we do, this is what we produce, this is whose future is being taken away”, said Mr Harrison.
Environment secretary insists ‘tractor tax’ will only impact minority
Environment secretary Steve Reed has hit back following a storm of criticism over the government’s plans to extend inheritance tax to family farms, claiming the “vast majority of farmers will not be affected at all”.
He blamed “misleading headlines” for the backlash to the tax, saying “only the richest estates” will be affected.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Reed said the government has taken a “fair and balanced approach that protects family farms while also fixing the public services those same families rely on”.
Our political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:
Environment secretary hits back amid storm of criticism over ‘tractor tax’
It comes after the PM was accused of lying to farmers after the government extended inheritance tax to family farms for the first time in history
Northern Ireland MPs plead with ministers to rethink farming tax plans
Northern Ireland’s MPs and peers have united in a plea to the government to rethink planned changes to inheritance tax for farmers.
In a letter to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, DUP MP Carla Lockhart warned it could threaten the generational transfer of farms, disrupt rural communities and undermine the long-term security of the agricultural sector.
The Stormont Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs has estimated that around a third of farms in Northern Ireland will be affected.
It comes as farmers plan to take part in an Ulster Farmers’ Union rally in Lisburn, Co Antrim, on Monday evening.
No 10 refuses to be drawn after Elon Musk claims government ‘going full Stalin’ on farming tax
Downing Street has refused to be drawn into a row with Elon Musk, after the tech billionaire described the government as “going full Stalin” in its approach to farmers.
Asked for a response to Mr Musk’s criticisms, Downing Street said it would not “get into a back and forth on individual comments”.
A No 10 spokesperson said: “The responses I gave this morning continue to be the case: that we will continue to engage with the industry and explain how the process works, and it remains the case that we expect the vast majority to be unaffected by the changes.”
They would not be drawn into saying whether the government rejected Mr Musk’s premise, saying: “The prime minister’s own words are very clear in terms of the support that we have for farmers and their importance, and we will continue to communicate how the scheme works to provide that reassurance.”
Why do farmers say the changes are a problem?
According to the NFU, while farms may have a high nominal asset value – the value of their land and business assets – the returns from farming are often very low, so farming families may not have the reserves to pay for inheritance tax liabilities without selling off assets.
The NFU’s president Tom Bradshaw said the change had left elderly farmers in the “cruellest predicament”, as they may not live for another seven years to take advantage of exemptions for gifting assets, or to hand over assets in a way that qualifies for the gifting exemption.
He has also warned the changes could undermine investment as farmers will be wary of increasing the balance sheet as they will be liable to pay inheritance tax on it.
There are also concerns that it could affect tenant farmers if landowners no longer benefit from having a tax exemption for farmed land.
Mr Bradshaw said there was a feeling among farmers that the government did not understand food production.
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