- Farmers from across Kent and Sussex have joined the protest around Dover
- Tractors were adorned with placards which read: ‘No farmers. No food. No future’
Over 100 tractors have rumbled through Dover today as farmers launched a fresh protest against Keir Starmer‘s inheritance tax grab.
Farmers from across Kent and Sussex have joined the protest to call on the government to reverse its plans impose a 20% inheritance tax (IHT) on farm assets worth £1 million or more from April 2026.
The government has insisted that the majority of farms would be unaffected by the changes and up to £3million can be passed on by two people free of inheritance tax.
But the National Farmers Union has said many British farmers are under threat.
Farmers Weekly reported the protest today had been organised by Save British Farming (SBF) and the Farmers for Farmers of Kent groups.
Tractors were adorned with British flags and placards which read, ‘No farmers. No food. No future,’ ‘Back British Farming and ‘Protect UK food security’.
Both of the groups are angry about the government’s ‘abject failure’ to deliver on its pre-manifesto promise to ‘provide a fair deal for British farmers’, Farmers Weekly reported.
One of the organisers is Matt Cullen, a beef farmer, based near Canterbury.
He told Farmers Weekly: ”It’s time for farmers to stand up and fight back and it’s time to show the government that things will escalate more if they don’t sit down and talk to us.’
Video footage showed the tractors travelling around farmland and onto the A2 before ending up in the coastal town itself. They were spotted taking up two lanes of a main road in the go-slow protest.
Save British Farming accused Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer of ‘betraying farmers’ with their ‘disastrous Budget’ which they said delivered a ‘poisonous cocktail and a hammer blow to farming,’ The Telegraph reported.
David Catt, who farms a market garden south of Maidstone, is also taking part in the demo.
He told Farmers Weekly the Labour Party was supposed to be ‘looking after hardworking British people, not crucifying them.’
It comes after crowds of farmers gathered in Whitehall last week, to demand Labour ‘backs down’ over its inheritance tax grab.
Top Gear presenter turned farmer Jeremy Clarkson, 64, also attended the march alongside his Clarkson’s Farm co-stars Kaleb Cooper and Charlie Ireland – defying the advice of his doctor to ‘avoid stress’ while he recovers from a heart operation.
Farmers arrived at the event in a convoy of tractors bearing ‘the final straw’ signs before joining a huge rally attended by the likes of Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage.
Mr Clarkson, who runs Diddly Squat farm in Chipping Norton, was holding a sign reading ‘With our farmers’.
Asked what his message was for the government, he told Sky News: ‘Please, back down’. And asked how bad the policy could be for farmers, he said: ‘It’s the end.’
In a second interview, Clarkson said Rachel Reeves has used a ‘blunderbuss’ to hit the agricultural sector.
Kemi Badenoch led a group of Tory MPs attending the protest.
She said in a speech: ‘The policy is cruel it is unfair and it is going to destroy the family farm as we know it. That is why at the first opportunity we will reverse the family farm tax.’
Ms Badenoch explained that she understood the plight of farmers and described the tax as an attack on their way of life.
In an emotional speech, National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw accused ministers of a ‘stab in the back’.
A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) previously said: ”With public services crumbling and a £22bn fiscal hole inherited from the previous government, we have made the difficult decision to reform Agricultural Property Relief in a balanced and fair way.
‘All ministers support the policy and it will not change.’
