Defiant farmers are threatening to blockade ports, disrupt supply chains and withhold produce and livestock in protest against Labour’s inheritance tax hike, leaving supermarkets scrambling and the Government bracing for a rural revolt. The Telegraph has more.
It is a significant escalation in what has been a fierce backlash to plans announced by Rachel Reeves.
The Chancellor placed a 20% inheritance tax on farmers’ assets worth more than £1 million in her first Budget. Previously, tax breaks designed to allow family farms to pass down the generations were exempt from the divisive 40% duty.
Some farmers are now openly discussing plans to take a more radical course of action. The discussions are understood to be taking place among farmers who have previously organised tractor “go-slows” on roads as well as protests in February which saw 5,000 farmers gather at the Senedd to voice dissent over environmental targets.
One farmer with knowledge of the plans confirmed discussions of possible blockades of ports and food distribution centres.
“They will block every port in the U.K. if they have to,” they said. “[This] could be a possibility to slow down the supply in the supermarket. The Government and supermarkets need to realise the control we have as farmers. The good thing with that is you have farmers everywhere so you can cover all the ports.”
The move to blockade ports would mirror widespread protests across Europe earlier this year, where farmers used their tractors to barricade the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, as well as the routes to several ports in Germany.
Clive Bailye, the founder of the Farming Forum, the U.K.’s biggest agricultural online forum, said that some farmers were looking at other actions, “from not taking sewage sludge to not letting food leave the farm or sending livestock to market”.
“I can see produce being withheld.”
He said that although they were “very worried about going to prison” he felt his position as founder of the Farming Forum put him in a strong position to help, adding: “We know we need to do something but we are not sure what it will look like yet. But I’ve got thousands of messages from farmers asking me how, when, where.”
The Telegraph revealed last week that some farmers were threatening to stop spreading sludge on their land in protest at plans to impose inheritance tax on their estates.
They are discussing plans for a co-ordinated “sewage strike” in a move that risks causing chaos for water-treatment companies and creating a mountain of waste.
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