One of the main organisers of yesterday’s farmers’ protest has described it as ‘just the warm-up act’.
As thousands of protesters descended on London to voice their objections to the inheritance tax measures announced in the Budget, a government minister said the country was ready in the eventuality of a ‘food strike’ before Christmas.
It came against the backdrop of warnings of a fresh wave of action if Labour ‘don’t come to the table’ with new proposals agreeable to the agricultural community.
Yesterday farmers and their supporters braved sleet and chilly temperatures at the rally outside the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall to listen to speakers from across the political spectrum.
Among those addressing the crowds assembled from all corners of the UK were Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson and Labour peer Baroness Mallalieu.
Placards and banners included attacks on Chancellor Rachel Reeves ‘Rachel Thieves…and Lies on her CVs’, a picture of Keir Starmer as a pig labelled ‘Pig Ignorant’ and ‘You Reap What We Sow’.
Children riding toy tractors pedalled along the road outside Parliament as part of the protest against a charge of 20 per cent inheritance tax on farms – which farmers say will lead to farms being sold off to pay the death duties.
Clive Bailye was one of the organisers of the demonstration, which ran alongside a separate rally of 1,800 farmers in Westminster organised by the National Farmers’ Union.
Farmers protest in central London over the changes to inheritance tax rules in the recent budget which introduce new taxes on farms worth more than £1 million
Protesting farmers fill Whitehall opposite Downing Street in central London
Children ride toy tractors in Parliament Square as demonstrators attend a farmers rally
The Staffordshire farmer said he and the other organisers of the event – Merseyside farmer Olly Harrison, Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones and Andrew Ward of Lincolnshire – were ‘waiting for the dust to settle’ before they decided their next move.
Mr Bailye told the Daily Mail: ‘We can’t rule out anything. We’ve been focused on this event today and proved this is affecting more people than they [the government] think.
‘I hope there were politicians sitting in different parts of Whitehall thinking “What if they do organise more tractors on the streets?”
‘We are not anarchists, we are four farmers with day jobs, and we organised that in a week.
‘I don’t know what will happen next but I know that farmers will not give up until we get a better outcome that we are happy with.
‘We are not going to go quietly. This could just be the warm-up act for what could be organised if they don’t come to the table.
‘They need to know this is just a warm up act.’
He said that the Met Police told him the farmers left the streets tidier than when they arrived and he was ‘not aware’ of any trouble or any arrests. People listened to our message not to disrupt.’
Farmers arriving at Westminster in their tractors for today’s protest against Labour’s inheritance tax grab
Attendees at the mass rally carried a banner reading ‘stop killing the people who feed you’
Vast crowds gathering in Whitehall to express their opposition to Labour’s policy
Potential protests farmers have suggested that could be carried out in recent days include a food strike.
But yesterday Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said that the government was ready farmers withheld food supplies.
Asked if she could guarantee that there will not be food shortages leading up to Christmas, she told Sky News: ‘Issues around food security are obviously national security issues.
‘There are plans in place, there are contingencies always in place to deal with that, but I’m confident that won’t happen.’
National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw who said farmers had been ‘stabbed in the back’ said protests will continue, telling Sky News: ‘This will carry on. They cannot have a policy in place which has such disastrous human impacts and think we’re going to go quiet.
‘We don’t know what’s next, but I know the membership have never been so united in trying to overturn something in the time that I’ve been farming.’
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party told the crowd: ‘The policy is cruel it is unfair and it is going to destroy the family farm as we know it. That is why at the first opportunity we will reverse the family farm tax.’
Yesterday Environment Secretary Steve Reed – appearing before MPs at the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee – insisted many farmers were ‘wrong’ about whether they are going to be affected by the IHT move.
A man holding a sign saying: ‘Labour hate labourers #BackBritishFarmers’
Jeremy Clarkson – who runs Diddly Squat farm in Chipping Norton – accused Rachel Reeves of using a ‘blunderbuss’ to hit the agricultural sector
Vast crowds gather to watch Clarkson and other supporters give speeches
He said: ‘Well, assuming these projections from HMRC, validated by the OBR and the IFS are correct, then many of them probably happily are wrong, because there are things that they can do to plan their tax affairs, as most businesses or asset owners would do to limit their liability. I mean, the numbers I’ve heard bandied around are enormous and very, very, very, very frightening if people were to believe them.’
His comments came a small number of rural Labour MPs broke ranks to voice concerns about the tax move.
Terry Jermy, who defeated ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss on July 4, demanded ‘reassurance’ from the Chancellor over her sums.
He said: ‘I want the Government to provide greater clarity on the proposals to reassure farmers, who have already endured so many challenges and uncertainty over many years.’
Steve Witherden, who represents Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, called on the Treasury to produce its modelling on the impact on family farms ‘so everyone knows where they stand’.