Farmers in England and Wales feel betrayed by changes to inheritance tax rules, said Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers Union (NFU).
He said his organisation does not endorse the plans being discussed to stop food being put on supermarket shelves. Farmers’ outrage at the changes announced in last month’s Budget regarding inheritance tax and farms was unprecedented, according to him.
I have never seen the united sense of anger that there is in this industry today. The industry is feeling betrayed, feeling angry. The government said that this wouldn’t happen, Bradshaw said.
Farm families who bear the responsibility will often be unable to raise money because of the need to reinvest profits into production, which will be undermined and damage long-term food security, according to Bradshaw. The policy has affected farmers, especially older farmers who will find it difficult to adjust to the new regime.
Several farmers protested in Llandudno on Saturday as Keir Starmer was addressing the Welsh Labour conference. Starmer did not speak directly about the inheritance tax changes in his speech, but said he “would defend our decisions in the budget all-day long.” Some farmers have raised the possibility of refusing to supply supermarkets in protest, but Bradshaw said his union disagrees.
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 they can do to try and demonstrate what this means to them. I understand their strength of feeling, but we are not supporting that action.
Previously farmland was not subject to inheritance tax. Ministers claimed this was often used as a tax loophole by wealthy people who bought up farmland. From April 2026, farmland worth more than £1 million will be taxed at 20 per cent, half the normal rate of inheritance tax, the Budget reads.
Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, defended the budget changes. The wider changes to agriculture proposed by the Department of the Environment will benefit the industry as a whole, according to her. “Look, 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,” she said.
NFU members are due to hold a protest in London on Tuesday, and Bradshaw told the Sky Sunday with Trevor Phillips programme that many hope to meet their MPs “to tell them from the heart what this means for them, their family, their farm, their future.”
