Oxfordshire farmers will hold a protest in Oxford city centre this week against the government’s plans to change the rules around inheritance tax relief.
The protest against the ‘family farms tax’ will take place outside the annual Oxford Farming Conference at the Examination Schools on High Street between 8.30am and 10.00am on Thursday, 09 January.
This comes after the Labour government faced backlash from the farming community after it announced plans to cap inheritance tax relief for farms worth more than £1 million.
Steve Reed MP, who has served as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since July 2024, will be speaking at the farmers’ conference on Thursday morning.
The protest was organised by local farmers in the county in collaboration with the Conservative Rural Forum.
Eddie Reeves, leader of the Conservative group on both Oxfordshire County Council and Cherwell District Council, who will be attending the protest, said he does not think the secretary of state “understands the magnitude of what he is doing”.
He said: “Since [Mr Reed] plans on coming to Oxford to discuss environmental policy, we thought that we should gather together, standing shoulder to shoulder with the people who feed us and who steward our countryside, and ask him to rethink his disastrous changes to Inheritance Tax.
“The Family Farm Tax could have a devastating impact on Oxfordshire’s farms.
“Farms closing means less food security for our nation and diminished rural communities for our county.
“The government’s changes to APR [Agricultural Property Relief] and BPR [Business Property Relief] are also negligible in fiscal terms, meaning there is headroom for the government to change course.”
He added that he hopes Steve Reed will speak to protesters on Thursday.
When challenged on the family farm tax in parliament last month, Steve Reed said “the vast majority” of those who claim Agricultural Property Relief relief will not pay anything and added that the government is looking to create a new deal for farmers to stop them being undercut in trade deals.
Rural groups, including Farmers To Action, as well as other Conservative councillors and candidates for the upcoming local elections, will also be in attendance.
Farmers have been asked not to bring livestock or tractors to the protest to ensure there is no disruption to the city.
Mr Reeves put forward a motion calling for the county council to adopt policies supporting farmers, and this was passed at the full council meeting on Tuesday, 10 December.
Oxfordshire farmers also joined an estimated 20,000 protesters who took to Westminster last November to protest against changes to the inheritance tax relief.
Jeremy Clarkson, who owns Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire, led two coachloads of farmers to the rally and addressed the crowds at Whitehall.
The Oxford Farming Conference is attended by farmers and agricultural leaders from across the country and will take place between Wednesday and Friday this week.
