Angry and emotional farmers have arrived in their masses at Westminster. They are protesting the recent budget from the government, with a particular focus on the new Inheritance Tax rules, which could affect up to 75% of farmers. 

The Grocer spoke to those protesting to understand what it is about this issue that has so ignited the passions of our food producers

Andy and Angela Shaw, cereals farmers from Cheshire

  • “We are the one industry where we are dictated to what our input costs are and how much to sell our produce for, and there’s nothing left in the middle for us to negotiate.
  • “The only thing we have left in our ammunition is the value of our farms and now that has been threatened. We will have nothing left.
  • “It is driving costs straight away into the business because now we’ve got to get advisers in and they don’t come cheap. My solicitor the other day gave me a quote of £2.5k just for a bit of consultation, no action. So that is more money we’re having to spend on something so ridiculous.
  • “I’ve already spoken to suppliers and said we’ll need a price increase on contract and they just went, ‘no’. Companies won’t entertain it at all.
  • “We don’t want to upset the general public, because they’re who we want to look after. We’d never do anything stupid. We just want to make everyone aware. This is our livelihood, it’s not just the business, it’s our home, it’s everything.
  • “Doctors, nurses, the railway drivers, they all went on strike to try and get the attention. In the end, it worked, so we will have to do that.”
 
 

Stop killing the people who feed you banner

Standing room only along Whitehall as protestors take advantage of all available space

Farmer Harmer Starmer makes a reappearance

Starmer the farmer harmer was a popular slogan

Young farmers join the protests

Bollocks to the Budget slogan hoodies are worn in the crowd

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Matthew and Andrew Blow, dairy farmers from Cheshire

  • “We have had it tough as it is. They are taking BPS payments away, reducing that and now the taxation. They want cheap food and they want it at a high standard, and they are taking that away from us.
  • “They’re not paying the right price for food. I know that’s government policy, cheap food so then you’ve got money to buy a television and a car, but food should be number one. If consumers paid more for food, we’d look at the tax situation, no problem.
  • “If the NFU don’t sort this out, the NFU are stuffed and so are we.”
 
 

Zigi Davenport, 80-year-old farmer from Welsh borders with 350-acre farm

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Zigi Davenport, 80-year-old farmer

  • “If I was to hand it over to him [her son], I have to live seven years, and I’m 80 and I’m diabetic, and I can’t live in the house, which I’ve lived all my married life.
  • “They’ve given us until April 2026, this new budget. So yes, if I commit suicide before then it’s free of tax. So do I do that? I don’t want to, I am quite active. I could just take an overdose of insulin.
  • “I did actually farm it with my husband. He died five years ago. When I first married him, he sent me to agricultural college for two years.
  • “My main ask is that they don’t include family farms that have been running for, say, 50 years or under 500 acres should pass free of tax, if the son is already working on the farm.
  • “We used to have 90 days of food supply, and I heard that if we had nothing flown in or come in by boat, we were down to six days food supply and that’s what we could grow. So much good prime land is going under solar panels and that is criminal on a small island with the same population as France.”
 
 

Read more:

 

Protestors carry ‘Rachel Reaper Killing Feeders’ sign

Movie reference as one farmer calls the government

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves gets a new nickname

Farmers are protesting new policies and taxes on carbon

Conspiracy theorists crept in on the sidelines

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Mr Clark, Leicestershire farmer

  • “We’re only a small farm with two granddaughters. When it comes to passing on, we’re just going to load them with debt. We’d like the farm to continue, but this tax is going to cripple it all.
  • “We’ve had no time to plan, no time for the seven years to pass it on. We’ve been caught.
  • “They’re saying it’s a done deal but it won’t end there. This is peaceful. Let’s hope it stays that way.
  • “We will be back. We’d like to see some French people here, they know how to protest.
  • “The Labour MPs have kind of disappeared, haven’t they?” 
 
 

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Hannah, protestor and farmers’ daughter from West Sussex

  • “We’re struggling to charge more food to supermarkets because they’re squeezing the prices, so our margins are getting tighter and tighter, and then to add this massive Inheritance Tax? 
  • “People say it’s a loophole. It’s not a loophole. It’s what saves British farmers. You pass it down, because it is a generational job. You can’t just pick it up.”
 
 

Brandon Jeffrey, cattle farmer from Exmoor

  • “There is so much contempt for politicians. That’s the thing. We are gonna have to take direct action if they don’t listen to us.
  • On strikes: “When you got all your cattle and that to feed, I don’t know about that, but we can certainly bring the country to a standstill with our tractors.”

Clarkson's farm star Kaleb Cooper makes appearance at protests

Standing outside Downing Street

'Stand with Farmers not Starmer' says one protestor

Farming group chant

Farmers wait out in the rain for protests to start

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Ali Capper, apple and hops farmer and executive chair of British Apples & Pears

  • “I found this quite tough. I’ve done a lot of tough things in this industry, all that Seasonal Worker lobbying, which was very hard, very emotive, but highly political. I went to the National Fruit Show the week before last and I had four grown men at different points in the day in tears in front of me because of this – they’ve planned their succession, and now it’s all being ripped up.
  • “For those that were our age and younger, they’re now facing a £20k-25k solicitor accountants’ bill to plan it all over again. But for those who are 60-plus, there’s not much that can be done
  • “This is an ideological, left-leaning policy that’s about redistribution of wealth, and the issue with the approach they’ve taken is that they haven’t ended up targeting those wealthy individuals at all. Neither are they targeting what I call lifestyle farms. It’s actually the true family farms, the people that are producing the affordable food in this country that are being hit by this, and I don’t think that was their intention.
  • ”Raise the threshold to £8m and then anybody of pensionable age, 67 and above, enable them to make an immediate transfer without penalty.” 
Grace joined The Grocer in February 2022 as fresh foods reporter and was promoted to senior fresh foods reporter in July 2023. She is responsible for covering fruit & veg, meat, fish, eggs, plant-based and dairy stories from farm to fork. She was awarded a PPA Next Generation Award in 2023 which recognises 30 of the most exciting rising stars in UK specialist media. As well as writing news stories, she supports with the annual Dairymen supplement and writes category reports and features. Grace has also represented The Grocer on national and local radio, commentating on the state of the UK food industry. Prior to joining The Grocer, Grace freelanced for The Sun, Times Radio and climate change magazine It’s Freezing in LA!. She began her career working in international technology PR.View full Profile

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