Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been handed a fresh warning from farmers that their protests “will not stop” after being forced to abandon his visit to a housing development.
The Labour leader had to be rescued by helicopter during his visit to a new housing development site in Milton Keynes, as a hoard of tractors blocked the roads and staged a horn-filled demonstration.
The farmers are continuing their war on the Government as Chancellor Rachel Reeves has stood firm on her plans to impose an inheritance tax raid on the farming industry, potentially forcing thousands of farmers to sell their livelihoods instead of passing them on to the next generation.
Speaking to GB News, farmer James Wright made clear that the community will continue to protest against the decision “until there is a softening or U-turn in the Spring Budget”.
Farmer James Wright has warned that the protests ‘will not stop’ unless Labour announce a softening or U-turn on the inheritance tax raid
POOL / GB News
Wright told the People’s Channel: “The Countryside Alliance made it clear that until the elephant in the room, the family farm tax is sorted, Labour ministers wouldn’t be welcome in the countryside.
“That doesn’t mean that they’re unsafe, but it means that they will be made to be felt, uncomfortable and unwelcome.”
Defending the protest against the PM today, Wright claimed that their demonstration “does not compare” to the damage Labour will cause if the inheritance tax changes go ahead.
The farmer stated: “Making so much noise that Keir Starmer can’t do his media interviews at the end of his visit is probably an appropriate action, given the scale of damage the family farm tax will do to British farming and the nation’s food security.
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The Prime Minister was forced to be airlifted out of the site after farmers blocked him in
POOL
“Farmers are united in one voice that the family farm tax and that Labour in general are destroying the countryside.”
Reiterating the key message of the farmers in their protests against the Government, Wright explained that the industry is “focusing its energy against Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, but not against the public”.
He added: “That is the key message from everyone, that this is within Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’s power to reverse.
“We’ve got the spring statement next month, and we so hope that they’re going to announce either a softening or a U-turn, because otherwise things like this will carry on happening.
“The farmers who were there today are the same farmers who were there in London. And wherever Keir Starmer goes, the farmers will be following.”
Wright told GB News that wherever Keir Starmer goes, the farmers ‘will be following’
GB News
Stressing that the family farms are “not profitable enough” and “cannot pay the inheritance tax”, Wright stated that farmers that are forced to sell up are “selling their cultures and their livelihoods”.
Wright concluded: “If you sell your farm, that is your culture gone, your identity, everything. This isn’t just the nation’s food security under threat, it’s family farms and it’s the communities that go around them.
“That is why farmers are so passionate. This will not end until they reverse the family farm tax, because it means so much to farmers. This is their livelihoods, but it’s also their culture and their identity.
“And for some farmers, those farms have been passed down generation to generation.”