A Yorkshire farmer has warned that Sir Keir Starmer’s controversial inheritance tax raid is “killing the industry” during today’s mass protest in Westminster.
Farmers descended on London today for a Pancake Day protest against Labour’s inheritance tax changes.
The demonstrators marched from Whitehall towards Parliament at midday, accompanied by a limited number of tractors and harvesters.
Ben, a farmer from Yorkshire, told GB News: “It’s just absolutely ridiculous. What he is doing is killing the industry, killing the country. Yeah, he’s just doing my head in.”
He added: “Somehow this black hole, the people with the broadest shoulders need to pay the most.
“Farmers this time just literally can’t afford it because what we make gets either reinvested or it just can’t afford to pay what he’s asking.”
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“Basically, it’s because he has no idea what goes on in the rural industry.”
Another farmer said: “I’m fifth generation and I work with my mother, who’s the fourth generation.
“So it’s very difficult looking forward and seeing the future at the moment. We’ve got the inability to invest because why would you want to keep investing and making the farm more valuable?
“So we’re sitting here with this paralysed feeling. You can see why there are such high levels of depression and anxiety, and things like that, which is something that’s not talked about enough—just how stressful farming is.
“It is extremely stressful. I sit there every day talking to my 80-year-old mother, who still works, and we discuss death on a daily basis.”
Labour is pressing ahead with a 20 per cent inheritance tax rate on agricultural land and businesses worth more than £1million, set to come into force from April 2026.
The measure was introduced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first Budget last October.
Farmers argue it will force land sales, stall investment, and hurt families hoping to pass their farms to the next generation.
Labour is pressing ahead with a 20 per cent inheritance tax rate
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The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have urged Labour to scrap the changes.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch labelled the levy changes as “immoral”.
However, the Government has defended the decision as a “fair and balanced approach”.