Britain’s farmers are considering a strike to disrupt the food supply chain and cause Covid-style shortages over Labour’s bombshell changes to farm inheritance rules.
Ten farming influencers on social media are considering on which days this month they will encourage farmers to hold back produce to try to cause shortages in shops.
Under plans announced in last week’s Budget, inheritance tax will be charged at 20 per cent on agricultural assets above £1million – although Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that in some cases the threshold could in practice be about £3million.
While the 20 per cent figure still represents a relief of 50 per cent compared to the standard rate, farming unions and opposition parties have criticised the move.
They argue it will make British farms uncompetitive – and, as the backlash continues to intensify, a group of plotters are now considering strike dates around a rally being organised by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in Westminster on November 19.
Merseyside arable farmer Olly Harrison, a YouTuber and unofficial spokesman for the group, told The Times: ‘They say we are only ever four meals away from anarchy.
Merseyside arable farmer Olly Harrison (pictured), a YouTuber and unofficial spokesman for the plotters, said the Chancellor ‘doesn’t understand how fragile the food supply chain is’
Empty supermarket shelves in Coton near Leeds at the start of the pandemic in March 2020
‘What Rachel Reeves doesn’t understand is how fragile the food supply chain is, and we saw in Covid how it only took a few days of panic buying to cause shortages. If we stop goods leaving farms for a day or two it will happen faster than you think.’
Mr Harrison added that there would be no strike action just yet, given that the US presidential election is currently ‘taking up all the headlines’ – and there were also no plans to ‘interfere’ with Remembrance Day or ‘wreck’ Christmas.
Separately, farmers are planning to stage a mass demonstration outside the Northern Farming Conference today to protest the changes.
Organisers say hundreds of people – some in tractors – are planning to attend the event in Hexham, Northumberland.
It has also emerged some farmers are threatening to stop spreading biosolids – known as sewage sludge and made from treated human waste – on their land as fertiliser in protest at Labour’s plans.
The strike could be hugely disruptive for water treatment companies and could create a mountain of waste, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Reports claimed that in online message forums, farmers are encouraging others to contact their sludge suppliers and notify them of a temporary halt to all deliveries.
Every year, farmers in the UK take about 3.6million tonnes of sewage sludge from water treatment plants and spread it on agricultural land.
Yesterday, it also emerged that farmers could end up paying thousands of pounds more in car tax after a loophole that benefits pick-up truck drivers was closed in the Budget.
Vehicles such as the Ford Ranger and Nissan Navara will be classed as cars rather than vans from next April when the benefit-in-kind tax break for commercial vehicles ends, the paper reported.
It comes after the new shadow environment secretary said the ‘crass decision’ to remove some inheritance tax relief for farms had betrayed the Government’s lack of knowledge about the countryside.
Victoria Atkins said the move had ‘consigned family farms and businesses to being sold off and split up as families cannot afford massive tax bills’.
Writing in the Telegraph, she added: ‘This is a serious mistake that Labour has made in their Budget. Their lack of understanding of the realities of farming was revealed in the crass decision to slash years of careful tax policy to keep family farms intact and protected from inheritance tax.’
Empty shelves are seen in a Sainsbury’s in Telford when the pandemic began in March 2020
Empty shelves at a Tesco Extra store in Worthing when the pandemic started in March 2020
She suggested the move would make the UK more reliant on imports, adding: ‘If farmers have to set aside money for a potential tax raid rather than investing in the farm, it will no doubt impact food production, increase prices and make British farmers less competitive.’
Ms Reeves has defended her proposed reforms to inheritance tax on farms by claiming it is not ‘affordable’ to keep the current system.
Meanwhile one of the UK’s largest animal feed producers yesterday warned that the changes will have a ‘negative’ impact on food security.
George Weston, boss of Associated British Foods, which supplies farmers with feed and technology services, said the taxes on farms pose a threat to the country’s ability to grow its own food.
He said: ‘It’s only the latest of a series of pressures that have been imposed on particularly our large scale farmers from whom we get most of our food.
‘If we are to grow more of our own food and benefit from the food security of growing things ourselves, then I think policymakers have got to create a more attractive environment for that farming community.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves outside 11 Downing Street ahead of the Budget last Wednesday
‘These changes to inheritance tax obviously operate in a very different direction.’
Mr Weston added: ‘I don’t think that government decision makers, for some while, have really thought about what you need to do to maintain a viable farming community, without which is very hard to maintain a good level of food security.’
AB Foods, which also owns fashion retailer Primark, sells to farmers and food manufacturers in more than 100 countries, including feed ingredients for livestock.
Tom Bradshaw, the president of the NFU, has warned that three quarters of the food produced by British farmers will be hit by the tax raid.
He said it was logical to assume that this also meant that 75 per cent of the food they produce would cost more, impacting food security.
