Farmers have ‘nothing to lose’ as fears grow over food supply | Politics | News

Campaigners warned that farmers have “nothing to lose” ahead of a major protest against Labour’s inheritance tax raid.

Ministers are drawing up contingency plans to keep supermarket shelves stocked after landowners threatened a strike on food deliveries.

A protest is also expected in Westminster tomorrow as farmers rally on Whitehall against the changes announced in last month’s Budget.

Clive Bailye, one of the organisers of Tuesday’s demonstration, said he would not condone direct action but warned some farmers could take matters into their own hands.

The arable farmer from Staffordshire said: “We have people now where they feel like they have nothing to lose, this is the final straw.

“They don’t care if they go to prison. That’s what I’m hearing from some farmers.

“If they really got their act together, they could block entire train tracks and ports. English farmers are a bit more Queensberry Rules than the French, they don’t want to punish the public.

“I could see things like ports or airports being disrupted if the Government really does dig in, that is what we are going to see over the winter.”

He added: “There’s no doubt that it is being talked about. They’ve got TVs, they’ve got newspapers and they’ve seen what has happened in France, Germany and the Netherlands recently and they saw that kind of economic blackmail … they did see a government U-turn.”

Farmers have reacted with anger after Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her Budget to limit the 100% inheritance tax relief for farms to only the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property.

For anything above that, landowners will now pay a 20% tax rate, although this is lower than the 40% rate of inheritance tax applied to other land and property.

Sir Keir Starmer yesterday insisted he is “absolutely confident” that the “vast majority of farms and farmers” will not be affected by changes.

Speaking to reporters on the way to the G20 summit in Brazil, Sir Keir said “it is very important that we support farmers” but he is “confident” most will not be affected by the changes.

The Daily Express has launched the Save Britain’s Family Farms crusade calling for a U-turn.