Picture credit- NFUS on X
More than 1,000 tractors descended onto London’s streets yesterday to protest against the family farm tax causing a major gridlock.Â
Tractors lined up on Whitehall Street outside of Westminster in anticipation of the UK Governments debate on changing the inheritance tax for farms.
Currently family farms have a 100% Agricultural property relief (APR) which reduces the amount of tax that farmers must pay when the farm and land is passed on to the next generation.
The government announced in the new budget that: ‘From 6 April 2026, the full 100% relief from inheritance tax will be restricted to the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property.’ 1
After this news was released, a petition to stop this tax was created and received over 147,000 signatures which ensured that MPs had to debate the issue in parliament. Â
Andrew Connon the president of National Farmers Union (NFU) Scotland attended the rally in London yesterday to show his support.
He shared a powerful statement: ‘Down in London today standing shoulder to shoulder with other farming unions, in our quest to get the UK Government to come across the table and discuss the inheritance tax and agricultural relief with us’
‘Day one on the job and we will not give up on this.’
They will have a tough job as when the Conservative party used their opposition day to vote to scrap this policy on the 4th of December 2024, they were not able to sway any Labour MSP’s and there were 339 votes to keep the policy.
Carys Jones, a young farmer from Wales shared how these changes would affect her future.
“These tax changes are simply going to cripple our business.”
https://twitter.com/NFUtweets/status/1888972779715723293
Young farmers across Britain are speaking up about how this is going to affect their future.
Overall, it looks like Labour has no plans to change the Farming and Inheritance Tax policy so far despite the overwhelming support against the policy from British farmers and Conservative MSP’s and the backlash it has created.
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