This morning’s headlines are dominated by plans for farmer protests in London tomorrow, against the government’s proposed changes to inheritance tax eligibility for farm businesses.
The Times reports how businesses are “drawing up plans to keep food on shelves” if farmers carry through their threat to strike this week by withholding their produce from market. It quotes farming minister Daniel Zeichner, who appeared on the BBC yesterday and urged farmers to calm down, saying “the vast majority will be fine” and criticising “extraordinary” claims about the numbers potentially affected.
Up to 20,000 farmers are expected to gather in Westminster on Tuesday to protest against the government’s decision to impose inheritance tax on farms worth over £1 million, The Times writes. Farmers have claimed that the policy will mean the end of family farms, but ministers insist that only the biggest estates will be affected.
The Mail quotes NFU president Tom Bradshaw, who told Sky News over the weekend that the government has “ripped the rug out from that very industry which is going to invest in food security for the future”. Taking aim at Labour’s much-voiced claim that “food security is national security”, Bradshaw adds the changes to IHT has left the farming sector “feeling betrayed, feeling angry”.
The BBC this morning carries a piece by political editor Chris Mason, who suggests the number of people who could turn up in London tomorrow could number between 10,000 and as many as 40,000, including Jeremy Clarkson.
“Nearly three weeks on from the budget, when the plan to charge some farms inheritance tax was first announced, the anger seems to be growing, rather than easing,” he says, adding there is a “simmering anger” about ministers’ “perceived ignorance about the countryside - and a sense from many farmers of being persistently let down, by this government and its predecessors”.
That sense of anger is also apparent in an in-depth Observer piece, which highlights how an out-of-touch Labour is already losing rural voters.
But in a speech at Welsh Labour’s annual conference in Llandudno over the weekend, prime minister Keir Starmer vowed to “stay the course” on tax-hiking budget measures, the Financial Times reports – despite hundreds of farmers protesting outside.
A separate FT piece highlights how the government’s honeymoon with business is very much over, with corporate Britain having rapidly cooled on the Labour Party, as “they don’t understand business”.
Read The Grocer’s explainer, here, on why farmers are so angry at the IHT changes.
Elsewhere, and in a rare counter argument, The Observer’s Will Hutton yesterday suggested changes to IHT will “bring new life to rural Britain”, with farmers having “hoarded land for too long”.
In other news, The Guardian writes Black Friday is “turning into Black Fraud Day”, citing Britain’s cybersecurity chief, who says criminals are using artificial intelligence to trick shoppers.
Inflation is set to climb, according to The Times, which claims ONS data due out on Wednesday is expected to show an increase to 2.2%, up 1.7% in the 12 months to September. The increase is likely to have been driven by a 10% rise in the energy price cap to £1,717 which took effect in October. The ONS is also expected to say that food items and communication products, like first-class stamps, pushed up the headline inflation rate over the past month.
Finally, the FT reports Astonish’s cut price soaps are “cleaning up in supermarkets”, with sales more than doubling since it moved to a new £30m manufacturing facility two years ago. Some of the Astonish range was last month stocked for the first time in the “Low Everyday Price” range at Tesco.
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