On Tuesday, I’ll be becoming a member of a Westminster protest for the primary time in my life. Sure, me—a person extra snug behind a laptop computer than in entrance of a megaphone, who as soon as thought the peak of rural activism was separating the recycling accurately. However one thing has stirred me into motion: the plight of British farmers beneath proposed modifications to inheritance tax.
Now, I’m not a farmer. However for 5 years, I lived in Little Brington, a wonderful farming village in rural Northamptonshire. It was there that I really grasped the essence of multi-generational farming. Households whose names have been etched on the identical fields for hundreds of years, their livelihoods tied to the land like historical roots. These households don’t simply work the land—they’re the land.
Once I heard Rachel Reeves announce the proposed modifications to inheritance tax, my first response was disbelief. These insurance policies really feel like they’ve been dreamt up in some Whitehall echo chamber by individuals who assume milk comes from Tesco and wheat arrives pre-sliced. The brand new guidelines, which might pressure households to promote elements of their land to pay inheritance tax, don’t simply threaten their livelihoods—they threaten their legacies, their histories, and, frankly, our meals safety.
In the event you’ve ever watched Clarkson’s Farm, you’ll know what I’m speaking about. Jeremy Clarkson, that unlikely champion of agriculture, peeled again the pastoral curtain to disclose the grim economics of British farming. A farmer would possibly personal 400 or 500 acres of land price £10,000 per acre, plus a farmhouse and a few battered equipment totalling one other couple of million. On paper, they’re millionaires. However in actuality? The common British farmer scrapes by on a revenue of round £75,000 in an excellent yr. Consider dangerous climate, fluctuating market costs, and skyrocketing prices, and it’s straightforward to see how the steadiness sheet finally ends up wanting like a punchline to a nasty joke.
But beneath these proposed inheritance tax modifications, farmers are being handled like cash-rich oligarchs. Think about a household that’s spent generations stewarding 500 acres of farmland, solely to search out that the tax invoice when the patriarch or matriarch dies forces them to unload massive chunks of their property. It’s not only a monetary blow—it’s an emotional and cultural gut-punch. And it’s taking place at a time once we ought to be doing all the things in our energy to guard British farming.
As a result of let’s be clear: farming is not only about fields and tractors. It’s about feeding a nation. British farmers already face relentless competitors from low cost imports and the looming uncertainty of commerce agreements. Add punitive inheritance taxes to the combination, and also you’re basically dismantling an business that’s already hanging by a thread.
Dwelling in Little Brington gave me a front-row seat to the quiet heroism of farming life. I keep in mind waking as much as the hum of tractors earlier than dawn, seeing sheep huddled in opposition to winter winds, and chatting with neighbours, who might inform you the precise day their grandfather purchased the land we had been standing on. Farming isn’t only a job—it’s an id, a legacy, a calling.
Nevertheless it’s additionally relentless, underpaid, and infrequently thankless. Watching Clarkson’s Farm drove dwelling the purpose that farming isn’t for the faint-hearted. It’s a high-risk, high-stress enterprise the place one dangerous season can spell catastrophe. And but, these are the individuals who make sure that milk, meat, and veg find yourself on our plates. It’s a duty they carry with dignity, at the same time as policymakers pile extra weight onto their already bowed shoulders.
That is why I’m standing with British farmers subsequent Tuesday. I’ll be there in my decidedly non-rural coat, most likely clutching a thermos of espresso and questioning how precisely to chant with out feeling like an fool. However I’ll even be there as a result of this isn’t only a battle for farmers—it’s a battle for all of us. A battle for the landscapes we love, the meals we depend on, and the communities that make Britain what it’s.
The proposed inheritance tax modifications will not be simply dangerous coverage—they’re a betrayal of the individuals who preserve this nation fed. We’re speaking about households who work seven days per week, one year a yr, in circumstances most of us wouldn’t final a day in. And but they’re anticipated to swallow the concept that the federal government can swoop in and take a large chunk of their property just because they’ve had the audacity to die.
This isn’t about particular therapy for farmers—it’s about equity. It’s about recognising that farming just isn’t like different companies. You possibly can’t liquidate a couple of hundred acres with out essentially destroying the operation. You possibly can’t put a price ticket on centuries of heritage. And also you actually can’t substitute British farmers with faceless conglomerates and anticipate the identical care and dedication to the land.
Ex-Labour adviser John McTernan has recommended that what Starmer is doing to farms is ‘what Thatcher did to coal mines’.
So, sure, I’ll be at Westminster. And I gained’t simply be protesting the tax modifications—I’ll be standing up for the farmers of Little Brington and in all places else. For the individuals who rise earlier than daybreak to are likely to their herds, who battle by way of rain and snow to reap their crops, who dwell and breathe the land in a method most of us won’t ever perceive.
This isn’t simply their battle—it’s ours too. As a result of when the farms are gone, we’ll realise too late what we’ve misplaced. And I, for one, refuse to let that occur and not using a battle.
In the event you’d like to affix the protest on Tuesday nineteenth November the organisers are asking individuals who plan to take care of register on-line first to allow them to work with the Metropolitan Police on managing numbers and likewise talk maps and itineraries.
