The government has dismissed concerns of food shortages due to anticipated action by farmers against changes to inheritance tax, saying food security is a “priority”.
Transport secretary Louise Haigh said if farmers do ramp up their protests, there will be contingencies in place to prevent shortages.
It comes after a campaign group suggested farmers should stop supplying food to supermarkets until the inheritance tax decision unveiled in last month’s budget is reversed.
It’s unclear how much support there is within the farming community for such a move. The National Farmers’ Union has distanced itself from the call, saying it is not something it supports.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced changes which mean farms worth over £1million – previously exempt from inheritance tax – will now have to pay it at a rate of 20%.
The move has sparked anger and protests from farmers, with a mass demonstration due to take place in London on Tuesday.
But the government is sticking to the policy for now, with farming minister Daniel Zeichner urging farmers to “look calmly” at the government’s plans and insisting that “the vast majority will be fine”.
He told the BBC’s Politics East programme: “People should look at the actual facts rather than the slightly extraordinary projections which are being made.”
What are the changes and why are farmers unhappy?
In her first budget as chancellor, Rachel Reeves announced changes to inheritance tax rules that mean farms worth over £1million, which had previously been exempt from inheritance tax, will now have to pay it at an effective rate of 20%.
Many say the changes will mean family-owned farms will have to be sold, and farmers will be under more pressure than ever financially.
On Sunday, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said the government had “ripped the rug out” from the farming industry at a time of “global insecurity”.
He said the changes had left farmers feeling “betrayed”, telling Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “They keep on saying 73% of farms won’t be impacted, but when you look at the farms that are producing the country’s food, a significant proportion of those farms, Defra’s own figures suggest 66% are over the million pound threshold, and these are farms that are producing the country’s food.”
He added: “We have a government saying food security is a critical part of national security, yet they’ve ripped the rug out from that very industry which is going to invest in food security for the future. There must be a better way of them doing this.”
Why could this lead to food shortages?
Farmers are planning a major protest on 19 November, but one campaign group – Enough is Enough – has called for a national strike, suggesting farmers should stop supplying food to supermarkets until the changes are reversed.
Speaking on Sunday, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said he does not “for one moment condone” such a move, saying: “We saw during the Covid crisis that those unable to get their food were often either the very most vulnerable or those that have been working long hours in hospitals and nurses.
“That is something we do not want to see again, but this is in the government’s control they can sit down, they can talk to us and work a way through this.”
He aded: “That is not an NFU tactic, we do not support emptying supermarket shelves, but I do completely understand the strength of feeling that there is amongst farmers, they feel helpless today, and they’re trying to think of what can they do to try and demonstrate what this means to them.
“So look, I understand their strength of feeling, but we are not supporting that action.”
Asked on the same programme if she is concerned about food shortages, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: “No, we think we put forward food security really as a priority, and we’ll work with farmers and the supply chain in order to ensure that.”
She said there would be contingency plans in place, adding: “The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will be setting out plans for the winter and setting out – as business as usual – be setting out contingency plans and ensuring that food security is treated as the priority it deserves to be.”
What has the PM said?
Sir Keir Starmer travelled to Wales on Saturday to speak at the Welsh Labour conference, where he was greeted by crowds of protesting farmers.
But he did not speak to them, and did not mention inheritance tax in his speech, instead saying he would defend his government’s “tough decisions” in the budget “all day long”.
Asked about Starmer’s lack of comment to protesting farmers, Haigh said on Sunday: “None of us came into politics in order to leverage tax on the farming community, but we were left with a very difficult fiscal inheritance.
“Colleagues have met with representatives of the farming community, and we do understand concerns.”
What is likely to happen next?
A mass protest is set to take place in London on Tuesday (19 November), staged by the NFU, which has said it is “just the start of the fight”.
There have also been reports that a splinter event could take place in the capital on the same day. Some farmers are also reportedly considering extreme measures including tractor ‘go-slows’.
Asked about the protest threats, Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said on Sunday: “If they’re going to have a protest and come to the centre of London to protest, as many groups do, and many groups have over the years, then that is, that is lawful and that is reasonable.
“What Just Stop Oil were doing was repeatedly, again and again and again, deliberately blocking roads, not as part of a protest, but simply to inconvenience the public and that is different, that is unlawful.”
