Farmers’ protest live: Police probe tractors breaking barrier as Clarkson says inheritance tax a ‘hammer blow’

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”.

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 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.

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.”

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.”

The president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has said farmers will continue to push back until the Government scraps agricultural inheritance tax changes.

He told Sky News: “This will carry on. They cannot have a policy in place which has such disastrous human impacts and think we’re going to go quiet.

“We don’t know what’s next, but I know the membership have never been so united in trying to overturn something in the time that I’ve been farming.”

Asked if farmers will continue on this path until the Government changes its mind, Mr Bradshaw said: “Absolutely.”

The NFU president also warned the tax changes could affect the country’s food security.

He told the broadcaster: “Up until now, any cash which is being generated from a farm business has been reinvested to deliver food production tomorrow, to deliver the food security that Sir Keir Starmer says this country needs.

“But, now, instead of reinvesting in food production it’s going to go into our pensions and into life insurance rather than investing in the very infrastructure that delivers the food security this country needs.”

Thousands of farmers are expected to protest near Westminster tomorrow to express their anger at changes put forward in Labour’s October Budget.

As many as 40,000 people are estimated to attend the event, forcing police and organisers to move the location from Trafalgar Square last-minute.

They will be gathering to protest Labour’s announced changes to inheritance tax (IHT) which will change how agricultural assets are taxed.

Read our full explainer here:

Among those on the coach heading to London for the NFU-arranged mass lobby of MPs is Tom Allen-Stevens, who runs a 370-acre farm near Oxford.

His farm, he says, is worth £5m, and his four children would be facing a £1m levy under the changes to inheritance tax.

Just this year, he had started discussions with his eldest son, who is a farm manager in Hertfordshire, on succession of the farm.

“Why on earth would he leave a well-paid farm job for a farm he’d be immediately slapped with a £1m tax to pay,” he says.

“If I was in his shoes I would find it a very difficult decision to make.”

Mr Allen-Stevens say his arable farm makes around £20k a year, and he runs a farm innovation network alongside it.

He also claims Labour has stalled on several innovation schemes since taking to government.

“It seems to me that they want to get tax from the farmers, but are not prepared to invest in growth or innovation.”

Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins has condemned the Government’s “economically illiterate” approach to tax.

She told GB News: “If any of us care about our countryside, if we want to see the picturesque views that we have – across my home county of Lincolnshire, but (also) across the country – if we care about the quality of our crops, if we care about animal welfare, then family farming in the United Kingdom is critical to achieving all of these aims.

“And this claim that Labour has come up with today to try and divert attention away from the march, that somehow this inheritance tax and this rise in national insurance is to pay for the NHS, is economically illiterate.

“Because, as we know, this is going to raise a fraction of what, in fact, we put into the NHS and are proud to do so.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Environment Secretary Steve Reed have said the reduction in inheritance tax relief offered to farmers would “ensure that wealthier estates and the most valuable farms pay their fair share to invest in our schools and health services”.

Labour has “destroyed” a “contract” between farming and the government dating back to the Second World War with its changes to inheritance tax, the president of the National Famers’ Union (NFU) has said.

Tom Bradshaw told Sky News: “There’s always been an understanding, a contract, between farming and society, farming and the government, ever since the Second World War, and this Labour Government have just destroyed that contract with the changes they proposed to the inheritance tax.”

He said NFU members are “asset-rich but cash-poor”.

“We’d love to pay more tax,” Mr Bradshaw continued. “If we get proper margins from food production, and we end up swelling the Treasury coffers, bring it on.

“But at the moment the supply chain doesn’t give us those returns that enables us to save the money to pay the inheritance tax that this Government now wants to take.”

He added that Environment Secretary Steve Reed said when he was in opposition that the Government would not change agricultural property relief.

“This industry has been betrayed,” Mr Bradshaw went on. “They said they wouldn’t make this change and suddenly they’ve gone ahead and done it.”