A farmer and leading campaigner has challenged Rachel Reeves to ‘work one day on a farm’, to ‘have some humility’ and ‘stop hiding’ in a frank message to the Chancellor.
Cornish farmer Victoria Vyvyan, who is also President of rural lobby group the Country Land and Business Association, said last week: “Our command to the Chancellor is this.
“Stop hiding. When did you last see her out on one of the farms or businesses that are about to die off? I’m not sure she owns a pair of wellingtons, but I’m sure I can lend her a pair.
“One of the pairs where the sole has already fallen out. And I’d like you to come to any one of the businesses [affected by APR/BPR changes] and I’d like her to do a day’s work.
“If you’ve diversified into furnished holiday lets, do a blimming changeover and tell me that’s not work. Come and do all of the diversified work that we’ve got in hospitality.
“But don’t crash our economy, that’s our instruction to the Chancellor. Why crash our economy when we can be part of the answer?”
This comes as scores of farmers head out this Christmas morning to milk cows, tend to livestock and generally check things are running smoothly on their farms.
Vyvyan was speaking at the Business Property Relief (BPR) summit at the London Palladium last week.
Like the headline grabbing Agricultural Property Relief (APR), BPR has also been capped by Labour with huge effects for small and medium sized businesses.
The summit, which was organised by the same group who arranged the #SaveFamilyFarms rally in London on 19th November, brought family businesses from across the country to discuss and highlight the crippling effect of Reeves’ Budget.
Clarkson attends the farm protest on November 19PAVyvyan continued: “I believe this is cock-up, not conspiracy.
“What they [the Treasury] need to do is have the humility to say to these experts, this wise council in the room that we have today, ‘I think we’ve got this wrong. I think we could do this much better. Could you tell us how to grow the rural economy so that it contributes more to the UK?’
“And the experts in this room would be able to say, ‘yes, actually, we know just how to do that.’”
Vyvyan’s address was part of an intensifying back and forth between increasingly frustrated rural lobby groups and the government which is refusing to budge.
Vyvyan, who has previously kept her rhetoric polite, took particular aim at the Chancellor, stating: “Were I to be taking over an economy showing a very, very modest amount of growth, and if I had absolutely no experience of running a business, no idea, apparently, of the difference between the balance sheet and the profit and loss and if I had been elected on a promise of growth, I think I’d seek wise words from somebody else.
“I think I’d accept in humility that I don’t know everything. And if my eyes lit on inheritance tax, and in particular for today, business property relief, I’d be very tempted to ask ‘why did the Labour government in 1976 bring in a relief for multi-generational businesses on their inheritance tax?’
“And this wise person might answer, ‘Chancellor, you cannot tax your way to growth. It’s simply not the way it works.’
“And this wise person might also say, ‘the tax receipts of thriving small and medium enterprises will always outstrip a smash and grab of capital taxation on these businesses.’
“And this wise advisor might add, ‘Chancellor, could you just think a little bit about the circumstances in which you’re going to drop this bombshell?’”
Vyvyan then outlined other changes affecting farm businesses such as Employers’ NI rises, minimum wage increases and insurance premium rises, warning farmers may just quit.
“Let’s just stop doing this. Let’s stop paying our taxes. Let’s stop doing all the things that are making us have sleepless nights. Scale everything away and go to the beach.”
Experts have warned this would have devastating effects on the UK’s food security.
More than 50 per cent of the food Britons consume is produced domestically, including dietary staples.
LATEST FROM MEMBERSHIP:
Percentage of food consumed in Britain consumed locally
GB NEWS/CHATGPT
Data from the Government’s latest Food Security Report to show which dietary staples would become scarce should farmers cut off the food supply.
The percentage varies by category: for example, 80 per cent of meat and dairy and 62 per cent of cereals are sourced locally, but only 23 per cent of fruits and vegetables consumed are grown within the UK.
The precise impact a farmers’ strike would have on supply chains across Britain is hard to predict as supermarkets and smaller outlets differ in their reliance on local farms.
Smaller outlets like butcheries and bakeries often source 60–70 per cent of their products locally, while large supermarkets source about 52 per cent of their stock from British farms, data shows.
Responding, a Defra spokesperson said: “Our commitment to farmers remains steadfast – we have committed £5 billion to the farming budget over two years, including more money than ever for sustainable food production, and we are developing a 25-year farming roadmap, focusing on how to make the sector more profitable in the decades to come.
“Our reform to Agricultural and Business Property Relief will impact around 500 estates a year. For these estates, inheritance tax will be at half the rate paid by others, with 10 years to pay the liability back interest free. This is a fair and balanced approach which fixes the public services we all rely on.”