Farage urges farmers to 'keep the pressure up' as tractor protest hits Westminster over Labour’s ‘family farm tax’
10 February 2025, 10:00
Nigel Farage has thrown his weight behind farmers staging a tractor protest outside Parliament on Monday, urging them to keep up the pressure against Labour’s planned inheritance tax changes.
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The tractor rally, organised by Save British Farming, comes as MPs debate an e-petition with more than 148,000 signatures calling to keep the current inheritance tax exemptions for working farms.
Labour has insisted it will not make a U-turn on its plans to introduce a 20% inheritance tax rate on farms worth more than £1 million.
The changes announced in the Budget are due to come into force in April 2026 and scrap an exemption which meant no inheritance tax was paid to pass down family farms.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told LBC: "We're seeing farmers' protests now all over the country, it's very important they keep the pressure up, it's very important they're voluble."
Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Mr Farage said: "I think the public are increasingly getting behind them but I emphasised to them this morning, please stay peaceful. Don't do what our neighbours do on the other side of the English Channel where they block the roads and set fires to things, that I think would turn the British public against them".
The Government said in its response to the petition that its commitment to farmers is "steadfast" but that there is an "urgent need to repair the public finances in as fair a way as possible."
"The reform of the reliefs strikes the right balance," it said.
The National Farmers Union, which has organised previous protests, said it supported any of its members taking part.
Nick Ferrari speaks to Nigel Farage 10/02 | Watch again
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: "The strength of feeling around the proposed family farm tax is still incredibly high.
"We support any members who want to take part in other respectful and lawful demonstrations which work towards our aim to stop the family farm tax."
