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Hundreds of tractors rolled through Parliament Square on Wednesday in the latest UK farmers' protest against changes to tax breaks announced by Rachel Reeves in the Budget.
Farmers from across the country headed to central London to join the march under the slogan “RIP British Farming”, the latest in a series of demonstrations organized by the industry, which says it is collapsing under the pressures of climate change, withdrawal of government support and climate change. mail-Britain's exit from the European Union Business deals.
The protest took place while MPs on the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee heard evidence from tax experts and Agriculture Group leaders on the impact of proposed changes to inheritance tax credits on agriculture and the wider rural community.
Under reforms to agricultural and business property set out by the Chancellor, farmers will be liable to pay a 20 per cent tax rate on inherited agricultural and business assets valued at more than £1m, which were previously exempt. The changes will apply from April 2026.
Farming leaders told MPs the government had not listened to their concerns, and warned that many farmers were considering death by suicide before the changes came into effect in 2026, rather than risk burdening their children with an unmanageable tax bill if they died.
“Those people who are in ill health or who don't think they'll be able to live for seven years may decide they won't be here in April 2026,” said Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers' Union. Committee. “No policy that has this unintended side effect should ever be deployed.”
Under inheritance tax rules, farmers can gift farm assets during their lifetime, but their estate remains liable for the charge if they die within seven years of the gift.
After the hearing, Bradshaw told the Financial Times that the National Farmers' Union was seeking a full consultation on the impact of the changes alongside other farming groups, and that ministers had failed to clarify the objectives they were supposed to achieve.
“We have tried to give the government some space but it has not acted so far, so we understand why farmers feel they need to make sure their voices are heard,” he said.
As tractors parked along Whitehall Street honked their horns, the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, urged Sir Keir Starmer during Prime Minister's Questions later on Wednesday to “change course” on policy.
Starmer defended the reforms, saying the threshold for a typical farming family was closer to £3m than £1m, and accused the Conservatives of “fear mongering”.
Opposition MPs, including Nigel Farage and James Cleverley, posed for photographs with farmers at a protest on Wednesday.
James Tassell, a sheep and cattle farmer from East Sussex who attended the protest with his wife and child, said the changes to inheritance tax were one of a long list of problems facing farmers.
“We have all worked hours and hours to earn nothing. Then they import low-quality food made at a cheaper cost and we have to try to compete – it is not a level playing field.”
Save Farming UK, the group that organized the protest on Wednesday, and which organized a similar march in March this year, has called for the IHT changes to be scrapped. He also wants the government to seek a veterinary agreement with the EU – a deal Labor has said it will seek – and reverse the accelerating removal of EU-era farm subsidies.
Farmers have not received payments under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy since Brexit. Instead, the UK has moved to a new scheme that rewards farmers for improving the natural environment and biodiversity, as well as reducing emissions.
