Farmers will fight against the Government’s inheritance tax raid “for as long as it takes” to stop the policy, the president of the National Farmers’ Union has warned.
Tom Bradshaw said he had “never seen such widespread anger, betrayal and despair in the farming community” over a single measure before.
He told ministers that farmers will not “let this go” and they are “in this fight for the long haul”.
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, ended the inheritance exemption for agricultural land and business assets at her maiden Budget at the end of October.
The so-called “tractor tax” means families will be stung by inheritance tax on their farm’s value above £1m from April 6 next
year.
The move prompted a ferocious backlash and warnings that the raid could spell the end of many family farms.
Thousands of farmers descended on Westminster on November 19 as they mounted a campaign to protest at the policy.
Ministers insist the vast majority of farms will be unaffected by the change but farmers are adamant the Government has underestimated the figures.
Writing in The Daily Mail, Mr Bradshaw said: “Ministers probably expected the grumble to last a few days and then the news agenda would take over and farmers would head back to the countryside, annoyed but defeated.
“That hasn’t happened. One reason it hasn’t happened is the people who graft 365 days a year in all weathers to produce our food, often for little financial reward, don’t do ‘giving up’. Farmers are in this fight for the long haul.”
He added: “Rest assured, farmers will not sit quietly by in the countryside and let this go – we will fight, for as long as it takes,
because this is about not just our farms, but our families and our future.”
Mr Bradshaw held talks with Sir Keir Starmer last week to discuss the policy but there are no signs the Government will back down.
The NFU president said the Government has “nobody to blame but themselves” for the backlash.
“In my lifetime I have never seen such widespread anger, betrayal and despair in the farming community,” he said.
Mr Bradshaw said the tax raid should be “halted, at the very least for a proper consultation”.
His comments came as the Conservative Party was set to hold an Opposition Day debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon to call for the Government to change course.
The Tories’ motion calls on the Government to drop the tax raid and warns the policy “will lead to the end of family farming as it has been known for many generations in the UK”.
