Thousands of UK farmers descend on Parliament to protest a tax they say will ruin family farms
British farmers have descending on Parliament to protest a tax hike they say will deal a “hammer blow” to struggling family farms
LONDON — With banners, bullhorns, toy tractors and an angry message, thousands of British farmers descended on Parliament on Tuesday to protest a tax hike they say will deal a “hammer blow” to struggling family farms.
U.K. farmers are rarely as militant as their European neighbors, and Britain has not seen large-scale protests like those that have snarled cities in France and other European countries. Now, though, farmers say they will step up their action if the government doesn’t listen.
The flashpoint is the government’s decision in its budget last month to scrap a tax break dating from the 1990s that exempts agricultural property from inheritance tax. From April 2026, farms worth more than 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) face a 20% tax when the owner dies and they are passed on to the next generation.
“Everyone’s mad,” said Olly Harrison, co-organizer of a protest that flooded the streets around Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Downing Street office with angry farmers. He said many “want to take to the streets and block roads and go full French.”
Organizers urged protesters not to bring farm machinery into central London, though a handful of tractors drove past Downing Street festooned with signs saying “the final straw” and “no farmers, no food.”
They were cheered by a tightly packed crowd estimated by police at 10,000, many dressed for a wet, chilly day in in the unofficial countryside uniform of olive-green Barbour jackets. Some held signs proclaiming “Stand with a farmer, not Starmer.”
Children on toy tractors looped round Parliament Square after a rally addressed by speakers including
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