Farmers protesting outside Oxford Farming Conference (Image: PA)
Angry will descend on supermarkets next week when they ramp up their fight against Labour’s inheritance tax raid.
The food producers plan to park outside every major supermarket next Friday in a bid to speak to members of the public and win them over.
Andrew Ward, one of the organisers, said: “What we’re trying to highlight to the public and to the government is that what they’re trying to do isn’t acceptable and it’ll decimate family farms.
“We’ve tried to negotiate with them. We’ve tried to get a meeting with them. They are not responding to anything we do and so we’re sort of ramping up things and escalating things all the time until we can get to meet them.”
Thousands of farmers will use the day of action to show shoppers how fragile the food system is while warning that the government is “playing with food security”.
Mr Ward added: “We’ve had Christmas, we’ve all taken the back seat and given the government the chance to take stock. Nothing’s coming from them so we’ll keep going and we’ll keep escalating until something happens or we get a response from them.”
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Farmers are being encouraged to make small purchases, such as tea, coffee, or a cleaning product, to validate the use of parking spaces.
It comes as hundreds of farmers descended on Oxford today to drown out a speech by Environment Secretary Steve Reed at a farming conference.
The tractor horns could be heard inside the venue as Mr Reed answers questions from furious farmers whose livelihoods are at risk from the tax policy, as well as recent floods.
The Chancellor in October announced that inheritance tax relief for farms would be limited to £1million, meaning all assets above that threshold passed down to the next generation would be taxed.
There is a higher threshold of £3 million for couples passing on their farms.
The Daily Express’s Save Britain’s Family Farms crusade has demanded a U-turn.
Tom Bradshaw, the President of the National Farmers’ Union, warned Sir and Rachel Reeves that the situation “could spiral and they should really sit down at the table”.
He said: “I think they hope it’s going to go away. “We simply cannot believe that the Chancellor has not sat down and talked about this policy.
“They seem to think that we will go quietly. You can hear outside the farmers have come out to protest today and to make sure the farmers voices are heard and they are going to continue until the Government recognises they’ve got this wrong.”
Mr Reed acknowledged that the changes to agricultural property relief, which brings in 20% inheritance tax on farm businesses over £1 million, was “very unwelcome”.
He said: “It wasn’t something we intended or wanted to do before we saw the state of the public finances, and of course, I regret that, but we tried to make it a little easier.
“For most people who are inheriting an estate, the first £3 million will be fully exempt, and after that, people would only have to pay half the rate that would apply elsewhere, and instead of having to pay it off in one go, it can be phased over 10 years.
“Now, I know that doesn’t address all of the all of the concerns, but it’s intended to make it a little easier.”