LONDON – With banners, megaphones, toy tractors and an angry message, British farmers will descend on Parliament on Tuesday to protest against an inheritance tax increase that they say will deal a “hammer blow” to struggling family farms.
British farmers are rarely as militant as their European neighbors, and Britain has never seen large-scale protests like those that have gripped cities in France and other European countries. But now farmers say they will step up their action if the government doesn’t listen.
“Everyone is angry,” said Olly Harrison, co-organizer of a protest aimed at flooding the street outside Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office with farmers. He said many farmers “want to take to the streets, block roads and go completely French.”
Organizers have urged protesters not to bring agricultural machinery into central London on Tuesday. Instead, children on toy tractors will lead a march around Parliament Square after a rally addressed by speakers including former ‘Top Gear’ TV presenter and celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson. Another 1,800 farmers are planning a “mass lobby” of nearby lawmakers, organized by the National Farmers’ Union.
Variable weather, exacerbated by climate change, global instability and the unrest caused by Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020 have all increased the burden on British farmers. Many believe the Labor Party government’s tax change, part of an effort to raise billions of pounds to fund public services, is the final straw.
“Four out of the last five years we have lost money,” said Harrison, who grows cereals on his family farm near Liverpool in north-west England. “The only thing that has kept me going is that I do it for my children. And maybe a little appreciation for the country will allow you to keep borrowing and keep going. But now that has disappeared overnight.”
The flashpoint is the government’s decision last month in its budget to scrap a 1990s tax break that exempts agricultural land from inheritance tax. From April 2026, farms worth more than 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) will face a 20% tax when the owner dies and are passed on to the next generation. That’s half the 40% inheritance tax levied on other land and property in Britain
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center, speaks with religious leaders during a breakfast roundtable for faith leaders as part of Inter Faith Week at 10 Downing Street in London, Thursday, November 14, 2024. Credit: AP/Carl Court
Starmer’s centre-left government says the “vast majority” of farms – around 75% – will not be affected, and several loopholes mean a farming couple could end up with an estate worth up to 3 million pounds ($3.9 million) can pass on to their children. free of tax.
Supporters of the tax say it will recoup money from wealthy people who bought farmland as investments, raising the cost of farmland.
“It has become the most effective way for the super-rich to avoid paying their inheritance tax,” Environment Secretary Steve Reed wrote in the Daily Telegraph, adding that high land prices were “depriving young farmers of the dream of owning their own farm.” to possess.”
But the farmers’ union says more than 60% of working farms could face a tax burden. And while farms can be worth a lot on paper, the profits are often small. Government figures show that incomes for most types of farms have fallen in the year to the end of February 2024, in some cases by more than 70%. Average farm income ranged from about 17,000 pounds ($21,000) for grazing livestock farms to 143,000 pounds ($180,000) for specialist poultry farms.
The past decade has been turbulent for British farmers. Many farmers supported Brexit as an opportunity to get out of the EU’s complex and much criticized common agricultural policy. Since then, Britain has made changes such as paying farmers to restore nature and promote biodiversity, as well as food production.
Some farmers have welcomed these moves, but many believe goodwill has been squandered as missteps by successive governments, the failure of subsidies to keep up with inflation and new trade deals with countries like Australia and New Zealand have opened the door for cheap imports.
National Farmers’ Union vice-president David Exwood said the tax increase was “the final straw in a succession of difficult choices and difficult situations that farmers have faced.”
The government has “completely damaged confidence in the industry,” he said.
The government insists it will not reconsider inheritance taxes, and its political opponents see an opportunity. The main opposition Conservative Party – which was in government for 14 years until July – and the far-right populist party Reform UK are both in favor of farmers. Some far-right groups have also supported Tuesday’s protest, although organizers are not affiliated with them.
Harrison says the demonstration is intended as “a show of unity with the government” and an effort to inform the public “that farmers are food producers, not tax-avoiding millionaires.”
“It’s every single sector, whether you’re a landowner or a tenant, whether you’re beef, dairy, milk, grains, vegetables, lettuce, you name it, everyone has been hit by this,” he said.
“Every farmer loses.”