‘Real anger’: Labour can expect hostile reception at farmers’ annual gathering | Farming

The suits and black cabs which typically dot the streets around Westminster have been frequently replaced by the wellies, tweed jackets and tractors of aggrieved farmers of late. The next protest in London by the nation’s food producers is expected on Tuesday morning, ahead of the annual get-together of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).

Farmers have regularly swapped their fields for the city since October, when changes to inheritance tax (IHT) for agricultural businesses were announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, angrily protesting and waving banners.

This year’s one-day NFU conference will be held for the first time in more than 20 years in the capital instead of Birmingham, after the the organisation decided to cut costs by making its usual Midlands two-day shindig every other year. The meet-up comes as its 40,000 members across England and Wales continue to struggle with a string of challenges.

Farmers have been battered over the past few years by rising costs, labour shortages, and post-Brexit changes to support payments, along with increasingly unpredictable weather, particularly this winter’s flooding, which has prevented many from getting crops in the ground.

Income fell for all types of farm in England between 2023 and early 2024, according to the most recent figures from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

And that is before the ongoing battle with the government over IHT changes – labelled a “betrayal” by farmers – after they were assured before the election by the now environment secretary Steve Reed that a Labour cabinet would not make any changes to agricultural property relief (APR).

Ministers have said a move to bring farms and other business property into IHT from April 2026 is necessary to help fix public services. They have also insisted that a quarter of estates, estimated at 500 a year, and valued over £1m, would be liable to pay IHT at a reduced 20% rate, rather than the standard 40%, meaning it would mostly impact wealthy landowners.

However, agricultural organisations dispute these figures, and warn the measures will endanger domestic food security, stifle investment and cause hardship to family farms.

Relations between farming representatives and ministers have soured further in recent days. Last week, the NFU’s president Tom Bradshaw and other leaders of agricultural organisations presented an “alternative policy proposal” for the tax changes – but quickly expressed their disappointment when the plans were not met with enthusiasm. A government spokesperson said following last Tuesday’s meeting that its reforms, outlined in the budget, represented a “fair and balanced approach” to raising money for public services.

Bradshaw warned the reaction from NFU members would be “one of fury, one of real anger, one of desperation”.

The mood, then, is hardly likely to be upbeat this week as about 700 farmers gather for the NFU’s conference, under the slogan “foundations for the future”.

Bradshaw has said the event will focus on helping farmers and growers to “build a confident and forward looking sector”, while also “rebuilding trust”.

Notable by his absence will be the prime minister, for once not invited by the organisation in perhaps a sign of the state of farming-government relations. This is contrary to appearances in recent years by then-PM Rishi Sunak in person and by video message. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer attended in both 2021 and 2023, when Labour was courting traditionally Tory constituencies and he told farmers that rural communities were “in my DNA”.

Although the audience of farmers are usually polite – at least those listening in the hall – Reed is unlikely to receive a warm welcome when he steps on to the stage for the conference’s political session.

His attempts to reset the government’s relationship with farmers at January’s Oxford Farming Conference – with a promise of a “new deal” for the industry – were somewhat unsuccessful when his speech was punctuated by the honking tractor horns of protesters.

Reed will arrive on Tuesday armed with an olive branch – the Guardian understands he is to tell farmers that more British produce will be served in hospitals, schools and prisons. The public sector will be given a target of sourcing at least half of all food from farms with the highest welfare standards, mostly likely to be in the UK.

The announcement shows Labour coming good on its manifesto promise for half of food bought across the public sector to be either locally produced or linked to higher environmental standards.

Tom Walton, a fourth generation farmer from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, will spend Tuesday away from his fields, attending the NFU conference for the first time.

“We are having to take a realistic view on the viability of the business and how we go forward” because of the IHT changes, said Walton. The farm, now run in partnership with his parents, has been in his family for nearly a century. He hopes to pass it down, one day, to the baby he and his wife, Gabrielle, are expecting this summer.

He is now unsure whether the farm will be handed down to the fifth generation: “Everyone is talking about sustainability in farming at the moment, but few understand that also means financially, and at the moment it is looking rocky.”