'Betrayed' farmers from North Yorkshire heading down to Westminster to protest

The National Farmers' Union are going to voice their concerns over the recent autumn budget in Parliament

Author: Chris Davis-SmithPublished 19th Nov 2024

Farmers from across the country - including North Yorkshire - tell us they're feeling 'angry' about the Government's planned changes to inheritance tax.

Protesters from the farming industry are meeting with MP's at Parliament later - to voice their frustrations over last month's budget changes to inheritance tax & agricultural property relief.

A rally is also being held in Thirsk. Tony Bell is a local arable farmer and says the changes mean more family farmers could disappear: " I think it will drive us to buying more imported food and be less self-sufficient as a country, we don't seem to be worrying about food security and we don't seem to be worrying about family farms continuing to farm and producing quality food in the UK."

He also says people wrongly believe farmers are wealthy: "The reality is that the return on investment is relatively low and so we don't have the returns to pay this inheritance tax on assets which are tied up in farming.

"The assets which are producing food, which is then going into the supermarkets and going to the consumers."

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the new Labour government's first budget that an inheritance tax of 50%, at an effective rate of 20%, will be imposed on farms worth over £1m, where previously they were exempt.

Speaking to reporters on his way to the G20 summit in Brazil, Sir Keir Starmer said it was important to support farmers, pointing to £5 billion over two years for farming in England, and said he was "absolutely confident the vast majority of farms and farmers will not be affected" by the tax changes.

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.