All power to the farmers’ revolt

Farmers across Europe have been on the frontlines of the populist revolt for years now. With their livelihoods threatened by assorted, EU-backed Net Zero measures, they have taken to the streets of Europe’s metropoles in protest against a governing class profoundly ignorant of precisely what it means to work on the land.

As thousands of farmers gather for demonstrations in London today, it seems as if Britain’s agricultural workforce is now mounting its own fightback against a clueless, out-of-touch political class. Their grievances may differ from those of farmers in the Netherlands, Poland or Portugal, where the common root has been the EU’s green agenda. But like their continental counterparts, Britain’s farmers are also battling an aloof governing elite intent on imposing livelihood-destroying measures from on high.

Because lest there be any doubt, the prompt for today’s show of discontent – chancellor Rachel Reeves’s plan to change so-called agricultural property relief (APR) – does indeed threaten many farmers’ livelihoods.

Under the existing APR, farming families are able to pass on their land and property to the next generation without having to pay inheritance tax. Before the General Election, Labour promised not to change APR, no doubt to curry favour with farmers. But promises made by Keir Starmer and his party are rarely worth the glossy manifesto paper they’re printed on.

In October’s budget, Labour proudly announced its betrayal. It now wants to cap APR at assets worth £1million, effective from April 2026. That means that farmers inheriting land and property worth over £1million – which really isn’t a lot in farming terms – will now have to pay inheritance tax at an effective rate of 20 per cent.

This poses a serious problem for those working the land. Not least because, thanks to the harsh economic realities of farming, from price-squeezing supermarkets to the rapid rise in fertiliser and feed costs, many farmers may be asset rich – on paper – but are very much cash poor. It will be extremely difficult for farmers to pay this new tax without having to sell off swathes of their farmland – something that will impact not only the landowners, but also the many workers and communities that work and rely on that farmland.

Labour claims that the changes to APR will only affect a quarter of farms, citing the Treasury’s assertion that just 5,000 farms are currently liable. But Labour’s claims don’t stack up. As Telegraph columnist Liam Halligan points out, figures published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) – the department actually dedicated to farming matters – show that nearly two-thirds of farms, or 70,000, are valued at over £1million. That means that the vast majority of farmers are now confronted by a potential tax bill that, amounting to tens and even hundreds of thousands of pounds, threatens their very ability to continue farming. As Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers Union (NFU), has put it: ‘Men and women who’ve spent years building up farm businesses [are] now wondering “why carry on?”, when it’s going to be ripped apart.’

The situation is even more challenging for Welsh farmers. Not only do they face paying inheritance tax, they are also threatened by the Welsh Labour government’s proposed ‘sustainable farming scheme’. Under the terms of this exercise in green virtue-signalling, they will be compelled to give up 10 per cent of their land for tree planting, to help tackle the ‘climate emergency’. Thousands of Welsh farmers took their concerns about the scheme to the streets of Cardiff in February this year. The APR changes will only fan the flames of their rebellion.

So far, Labour has remained unmoved by the farmers’ revolt. John McTernan, a former adviser to Tony Blair, announced last week that he wanted Labour to ‘do to farmers what Margaret Thatcher did to the miners’. Starmer, while not as aggressive, was no less resolute. He pledged last week to ‘defend our decisions in the budget all day long’, before droning on about the ‘fiscal reality’ that supposedly gives his government no alternative but to pursue its immiserating policies.

Starmer’s technocratic, ‘computer says no’ dismissal of those worried about their futures speaks of the metropolitan aloofness that characterises his Labour government. Labour and its legion media cheerleaders seem so utterly, wilfully oblivious to the reality and necessity of productive work, of material production, and the communities that rely on it. They certainly have no grasp of the culture and life of rural Britain. Just as Labour is happily cancelling the North Sea gas and oil industry, and with it a much-needed energy supply, now it is willing to throw those who put food on our tables under the tractor. The Guardian-reading classes seem to think that energy comes from the plug socket and food comes from Ocado, rather than from the hard graft of those whose livelihoods Labour now seems willing to decimate.

Farmers are clearly not willing to take this punishment lying down. While today’s protests have not caused much disruption, future actions could. Many farmers are unhappy with the perceived weakness of the NFU, and are reportedly discussing taking more militant action. There is talk of farmers potentially blockading ports, refusing to supply retailers and even a strike on spreading sewage slurry. This is where Labour’s ignorance and intransigence could be leading us.

Starmer and Reeves could do with learning the lessons of recent history. In 2000, an arrogant New Labour government initially refused to rescind a rise in fuel duty despite protests from farmers and hauliers. A militant farmer from South Wales, among others, responded by leading farmers and lorry drivers in a blockade of roads, oil refineries and fuel-shipping terminals. This eventually brought the state to its knees and prompted the government to perform a humiliating u-turn.

The difference now is that Starmer and Reeves enjoy nothing like the lukewarm support New Labour did two decades ago, before farmers and hauliers reminded them who really keeps society moving. Painfully estranged from so much of working Britain, Labour faces a challenge here far greater than it realises. All power to the farmers.

Tim Black is a spiked columnist.