Farmers have spoken about the terrifying prospect of having to sell their farms in Oxfordshire as 100 tractors descended on the city centre.
Protesting against the government Family Farm Tax, the farmers gathered outside the Examinations School on Oxford High Street, where Environment Secretary Steve Reed was speaking.
He was drowned out by the sounds of tractors beeping as he spoke as Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers’ Union, spoke to protesters through the gates outside the building.
Tractors arrived at the protest at 9.00am, causing a traffic gridlock on either side of the city centre.
They were displayed with signs that said “No farms, no food, axe the tax” and “death to Reeves, not the UK”.
Farmers from across Oxfordshire organised the protest, in collaboration with the Conservative Rural Forum, against the government’s plans to change the rules around inheritance tax relief for farmers.
Andy Corner, who appeared at the protest on his tractor, owns a farm in Oxfordshire.
When asked what would happen to his livelihood if the family farm tax went ahead, he said: “Realistically my family will have to sell the farm. We’re just not making enough money to support that.”
“We might be asset rich, but most of us aren’t actually planning on selling; we’re planning on moving it on to our families.
“The money that we’ve got is for the next generation, and trying to make a living for them.”
When asked what message he wanted to send to Mr Reed, he said: “Listen to us, because if you don’t listen to us, we’re going to get bigger and stronger. We’re not going to roll over.”
Heidi Smith, who owns a medium-sized family farm in Oxfordshire, said that farmers in the county face more difficulty.
She said: “In Oxfordshire, land values are very high, which means our farms are valued even more highly because land is in demand for other things like housing.
“On our death, the value of the farm is going to be higher, even though an acre of land only produces a certain amount of return.
“It’s even more difficult for people in areas of the county with higher land values.”
Fellow Oxfordshire farmer Julie Adams added: “We don’t believe a word he says because he lied last year, he promised not to bring in the inheritance tax and he has, so his words mean nothing really.”
James Wright, director of policy (southwest) of the Conservative Rural Forum, said: “I’m a family farmer, and the simple fact is that in my lifetime, the farm will not make enough to pay the family farm tax.
“That means when a farmer comes to pass on that farm to their children, they will have to sell up.
“The people who buy those farms will be charities and corporations – they won’t produce food.
“The message is overwhelming in the farming community. This is bad for family farmers, and this is bad for the nation’s food.
“There are farmers up and down the county who are having sleepless nights about Labour’s raids on farmers across the country.”
Mr Reed announced the government’s ‘new deal for farmers’, with plans to boost farmers’ profitability and sustainability.
Mo Metcalf-Fisher, who spoke on behalf of the Countryside Alliance, said: “There’s been a lot of talking at farmers.
“We don’t want a situation where people are buying prime agricultural land and taking it out of the hands of farming families.
“For farmers, it’s not about money, this is not about their legacy, it’s about the service they provide for our country.
“I’m hearing horrendous stories about the anxiety and pain farmers are experiencing.”
He called for the government to engage with rural groups, including the Countryside Alliance and the NFU, to work out a way forward.
Eddie Reeves, leader of the Conservative Group on Oxfordshire County Council, said: “I think the government has got this policy wrong, and I think they still have time to change it.
“It’s the wrong policy, affecting the wrong group of people at the wrong time.
“Many farmers across Oxfordshire are deeply worried about the changes.
“We have quite a range of farms in Oxfordshire. We’re the most rural county in the southeast of England.
“Unless the government at least come to an accommodation with farmers, I fear that the future of farming in this county is looking rather bleak.”
Jeremy Clarkson, who owns Diddly Squat Farm in Chadlington, was not in attendance at the protest, having previously led two coachloads of Oxfordshire farmers to London to protest against agricultural inheritance tax changes in November.
Similar protests against the family farms tax took place in Beverley, Yorkshire, on Wednesday (08 January).
