Inheritance tax: ‘Betrayed’ farmers take Budget protest to London

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has accused the government of “betrayal” as thousands prepare to gather in London for a rally against the planned changes to inheritance tax rules for farms.

“To launch a policy this destructive without speaking to anyone involved in farming beggars belief,” NFU president Tom Bradshaw will say in his speech on Tuesday.

The recent Budget announcement means that previously-exempt farms worth more than £1m would have to pay an inheritance tax of 20% – half the usual rate of 40% – from April 2026.

“This budget has just ripped the heart out of us because I know my son will not be able to pay the inheritance tax,” Gloucestershire livestock farmer David Barton told the BBC.

The NFU has gathered 1,800 of its members in London for a mass lobby of MPs.

A larger event, which organisers say more than 10,000 people have registered for, is being held at Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, and is expected to be addressed by speakers, including the farmer and broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson.

Co-organiser of that rally Staffordshire farmer Clive Bailye told the BBC that it was set up to be a peaceful demonstration and had the public’s support.

But he warned, in the future, there could be more direct action-style protests by some farmers.

“They are at a point now where they have nothing to lose and they have got the infrastructure behind them to be able to cause a lot of problems,” he explained.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw said that while farmers felt “betrayed” the union did not condone direct action such as withholding food from supermarkets.

Among those attending Tuesday’s events is Gloucestershire livestock farmer David Barton, who has a 265-acre farm near Cirencester that has been in his family since 1913.

Mr Barton estimates his 400-cattle business is worth around £5m and the proposed changes to inheritance tax could see his son facing a £800,000 bill.

“This budget has just ripped the heart out of us because I know my son will not be able to pay the inheritance tax,” he said.

He is now considering gifting his estate, which means it would fall outside of inheritance tax if he does not die within seven years, but feared he was not in a financial position to stop working.

Mr Barton said the government’s attempts to target the wealthiest landowners who were investing in farms to avoid inheritance tax could see small farms like his ultimately sold off.

“The people they probably want to target will end up with my farm. That’s the reality – someone with a lot of money will buy this farm,” he said.

“For ministers to stand up and say this is good for farmers like me, for agriculture, they are chucking petrol onto a rather hot fire at the moment.”

The number of farms that could be affected by the change in agricultural property relief (APR) on inheritance tax is disputed.

The government says it will only affect the wealthiest 500 estates each year but the NFU and the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) have estimated up to 70,000 farms could be affected in total.

Secretary of State Steve Reed told the BBC that Labour was “on the side of rural Britain”.

He added: “I completely understand that with any change comes a degree of uncertainty but if farmers look at the facts, they will see that the vast majority of farms will be unaffected by this.

“The figures are very clear – and they’ve been endorsed by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility – and they show that no more than 500 estates will be affected.

“The vast majority of claimants will pay nothing under the new scheme just as they pay nothing under the old scheme.”

The government has also said that combining tax reliefs and exemptions, depending on individual circumstances, could actually allow up to £3m to be passed on free of inheritance tax.

It added that any inheritance tax bill could be paid in instalments over a 10-year period.

A group from the Royal Agricultural University’s students’ union were also set to join the rally.

Student Alaw Jones, who is the ninth generation of her family to farm livestock in west Wales, said her parents had always planned to hand down the business to her and her sister but now “all the work they have done to build the business and get this farm to stand on its own just feels like it’s for nothing.”

She added: “Mental health is a massive issue in the agricultural industry and this feels like the final nail in the coffin for those farmers who are already struggling.”

Rupert Dale’s family run a hay farm on the Worcestershire/Shropshire border supplying livestock farmers across the country.

He said the family now fear they will have to sell up, explaining: “Me and my brother would have to pay an immense sum for our farm to carry on and that’s a sum that we spoke about together as a family that we would not be able to finance and afford.”

Students’ union president Alexandra Godfrey said: “I think this is one of the most pressing challenges in the farming sector and we all need to rally together to tell the government how we feel. If not now, when?”

Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said Labour had delivered a “budget of broken promises” that was “killing British farming”.

“Farmers can be asset rich, but cash poor,” she told the BBC’s Today Programme.

“They are not in it for the money – it’s a 365 day responsibility.”

The government has previously estimated just 500 of the UK’s wealthiest landowners would be affected by the change – a figure the Liberal Democrats called “utter rubbish”.

“The only way that people can pay the inheritance is get rid of the farm – so corporates buy it,” the party’s environment, food and rural affairs spokesperson Tim Farron told BBC Breakfast.

“It’s cruel, it’s unfair, it’s also incredibly stupid”.