On Tuesday I will take part in a protest in Westminster for the first time in my life. Yes, me – a man more comfortable behind a laptop than a megaphone, who once thought that properly separating recycling was the pinnacle of rural activism. But something has spurred me into action: the plight of British farmers under proposed changes to inheritance tax.
Now I’m not a farmer. But for five years I lived in Little Brington, a beautiful farming village in rural Northamptonshire. There I really understood the essence of multi-generational agriculture. Families whose names have been engraved in the same fields for centuries, and their livelihoods tied to the land like ancient roots. These families don’t just farm the land; they are the land.
When I heard Rachel Reeves announce the proposed changes to the estate tax, my first reaction was disbelief. This policy feels like it was dreamed up in a Whitehall echo chamber by people who think milk comes from Tesco and wheat arrives pre-cut. The new rules, which could force families to sell parts of their land to pay inheritance taxes, don’t just threaten their livelihoods – they threaten their legacies, their histories and, frankly, our food security.
If you’ve ever looked Clarkson’s Farmyou know what i’m talking about. Jeremy Clarkson, that unlikely champion of farming, pulled back the pastoral curtain to reveal the grim economics of British farming. A farmer might own 400 or 500 hectares of land worth £10,000 per hectare, plus a farm and some battered machinery for a total of another few million. On paper they are millionaires. But in reality? The average British farmer can survive on a profit of around £75,000 in a good year. Add in bad weather, fluctuating market prices and skyrocketing costs, and it’s easy to see how the balance sheet ultimately looks like the punch line to a bad joke.
But these proposed changes to the estate tax treat farmers like cash-rich oligarchs. Imagine a family that manages 500 hectares of farmland for generations, only to find that the tax bill when the patriarch or matriarch dies forces them to sell large portions of their estate. It’s not just a financial blow, it’s an emotional and cultural blow. And it comes at a time when we must do everything we can to protect British agriculture.
Because let’s be clear: agriculture is not just about fields and tractors. It’s about feeding a nation. British farmers are already facing cutthroat competition from cheap imports and the looming uncertainty of trade deals. Add punitive estate taxes to the mix, and you’re essentially dismantling an industry that’s already hanging by a thread.
Living in Little Brington gave me a front-row seat to the quiet heroism of farm life. I remember waking up before dawn to the hum of tractors, seeing sheep huddled against the winter winds and talking to neighbors who could tell you exactly what day their grandfather bought the land we were standing on. Farming is not just a job; it is an identity, a legacy, a calling.
But it is also brutal, underpaid and often thankless. Watching Clarkson’s Farm, it became clear that farming is not for the faint of heart. It’s a high-risk, high-stress business, where one bad season can spell disaster. And yet these are the people who ensure that milk, meat and vegetables end up on our plates. It is a responsibility they bear with dignity, even as policy makers place even more weight on their already stooped shoulders.
That is why I will be standing with the British farmers next Tuesday. I’ll be there in my decidedly non-country coat, probably holding a thermos of coffee and wondering how exactly to sing without feeling like an idiot. But I will be there too, because this is not just a fight for farmers, it is a fight for all of us. A fight for the landscapes we love, the food we depend on, and the communities that make Britain what it is.
The proposed changes to the estate tax are not just bad policy; they are a betrayal of the people who feed this country. We’re talking about families working seven days a week, 365 days a year, in conditions that most of us wouldn’t last a day. And yet they are expected to accept the idea that the government can step in and provide a solution. large part of their estate, simply because they had the courage to die.
This is not about special treatment for farmers; it’s about honesty. It’s about recognizing that farming isn’t like other businesses. You can’t liquidate a few hundred acres without fundamentally destroying the operation. You cannot put a price tag on centuries of heritage. And you certainly can’t replace British farmers with faceless conglomerates and expect the same care and dedication to the land.
Former Labor adviser John McTernan has suggested that what Starmer is doing to the farms is ‘what Thatcher did to the coal mines’.
So yes, I will be in Westminster. And I won’t just protest the tax changes; I will stand up for the farmers of Little Brington and everywhere else. For the people who rise before dawn to tend their flocks, who battle through rain and snow to harvest their crops, who live and breathe the land in ways most of us will never understand.
This isn’t just their fight, it’s ours too. Because when the farms are gone, we will realize too late what we have lost. And I, for one, refuse to let that happen without a fight.
If you would like to join the protest on Tuesday, November 19, organizers are asking people who plan to attend register online Firstly, so they can work with the Metropolitan Police on managing numbers and also communicate maps and travel routes.