Hundreds of angry farmers will hold a major demonstration in central London amid rising fury at the Government’s decision to “double down” on an inheritance tax raid on their land.
The National Farmers’ Union outlined plans for a mass rally outside Parliament in Westminster on November 19 after Rachel Reeves revoked farmland’s exemption from death duties.
According to Budget papers, from April 2026 farmers will be able to claim 100 per cent relief from tax on the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business assets, falling to 50 per cent beyond that.
Labour said “restricting the generosity” of such relief will make death taxes “fairer”.
But President of the NFU Tom Bradshaw, who is meeting Environment Secretary Steve Reed on Monday, said current plans “need to be overturned and fast”.
He spoke of “the tension, the anger, the frustration” among farming communities.
Members fear the move could kill off family businesses, damage food security and set back environmental protection work.
TV property guru Kirstie Allsopp and Jeremy Clarkson are among those to vent their fury.
Farmers are threatening to attend the London demo with their tractors and other large machinery, which could grind the capital to a halt.
But Mr Reed said that the plans outlined in Wednesday’s Budget are a “fair and balanced approach that protects family farms while also fixing the public services those same families rely on”.
Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Mr Reed said: “I completely understand farmers’ anxiety at any changes. But rural communities need a better NHS, affordable housing and public transport we can provide if we make the system fairer.
“That is why the Labour Government has announced plans to reform agricultural property relief.
“Only the richest estates will be asked to pay, not small, family farms as some misleading headlines have claimed.
“Look at the detail and you’ll see that the vast majority of farmers will not be affected at all.
“They will be able to pass the family farm down to their children just as previous generations have always done.”
After reading Mr Reed’s article, Mr Bradshaw said: “Looks like they’ve decided they’re going to double down, which I’m absolutely baffled by.”
Mr Bradshaw said he has never seen the farming industry in the position it is in at the moment, and while this has built up over the last four or five years, he said: “Today the tension, the anger, the frustration, it is so, so tangible.
“We will work with the Government to find a resolution, but I just hope that resolution is forthcoming.”
He added: “I just think that what our members are saying to us is this is a Government that doesn’t understand farming.
“They’ve shown us with this budget they just don’t understand what we do to produce the country’s food.”
He said farmers are deemed to be wealthy because they have an asset, but pointed out that the return from that asset is “very, very low”.
Mr Bradshaw added: “I think there’s a real anger in the countryside that this Government is demonstrating that they don’t understand the farming industry.
“I was so pleased when I saw the Labour manifesto. Those words ‘Food security is national security’ are so important, but those words don’t feed people.
“It’s the family farms across the United Kingdom that produce people’s food and are going to be adversely impacted by this change.
“And I really hope that the Government can see that they’ve got this wrong.”
The issue has been repeatedly raised in the House of Commons and business minister Douglas Alexander defended the Government’s reforms of inheritance tax, saying “difficult and necessary choices” had to be made.
