Farmer fury
OPINION: The new Labour Government in the UK is facing the wrath of farmers. Last week thousands of farmers and their supporters converged in London protesting changes to inheritance tax for farmers announced in the Budget.
That's the New Year message from National Farmers Union president Tom Bradshaw.
He says to cap a wretched year, farmers saw a new Labour government, which, after 14 years in opposition, promised to reset its relations with British farmers and deliver a much-needed lift to farmer confidence.
"Instead, it delivered an inflationary budget and all but removed the tax reliefs for agriculture property and business property," he says.
"In all my years in the industry I've never experienced the anger, despair and sense of betrayal following the Chancellor's announcement to changes to inheritance tax, which has long protected farming's ability to pass on farm businesses to the next generation, thereby protecting food producing businesses and the nation's food security.
"We saw these raw emotions play out at our mass lobby of MPs in Westminster, the farmer rally in Whitehall, and at the various tractor protests in London and around the UK, with tens of thousands of farmers expressing passionately how this tax will devastate their businesses, families, rural communities and national food security.
"We are keeping up the pressure on government, targeting those rural labour MPs, and with a powerful visual reminder from the banners going up all over the UK that the fight is far from over."
Bradshaw says that pre-election, there were several policies within Labour's election manifesto that provided optimism, and "we all need to see those delivered and at pace".
A robust system of core standards for food imports is essential to protect farmers and consumers from imported food that would be illegal to produce here and allow the economic marketplace to function properly, rather than NFU members being constantly undermined, he says.
