Aberdeenshire MP Harriet Cross backs major London tractor protest over farm inheritance tax
A local MP has sided with farming protesters after tractors descended on cities across the UK today in a fight against inheritance tax changes.
Harriet Cross, MP for Gordon and Buchan, said the protest showed the deep impact that the Government’s plans would have.
Pictures taken by David White, representing farming charity Tim White’s Countrywide Foundation, show how many tractors were driven to Westminster for the event.
Organised by Save British Farming and Fairness for Farmers Kent, the protest was titled “RIP British Farming”.
The changes will mean that farmland worth more than £1 million will be subject to inheritance tax, at 50 per cent of the normal rate.
Only the agricultural value of the land counts against this threshold and it does not include residential property.
As a result, in a case where two people are passing on assets to their children, the threshold could be up to £3 million.
Critics, however, claim that the new tax is unfairly punishing family farms with already razor-thin profit margins.
Conservative Ms Cross is among those who have campaigned against the changes.
She said: “This latest protest highlights the worry and anger among farmers at the Labour government’s disastrous treatment of the industry.
“The government has not been listening to farmers’ real concerns since the budget and they have been left with no choice but to take yet more valuable time away from their farms to voice their concerns on the doorsteps of Westminster.
“Keir Starmer thinks farmers, their communities and rural politicians, like myself, will eventually give up over time, but rest assured, we won’t back down until he rethinks this unfair policy.
“This issue won’t go away, no matter how hard Labour tries to ignore the voices of our farmers.
“Livelihoods spanning generations, jobs, the economy, and our food security are all on the line.
“Keir Starmer must start to recognise this and act in the best interests of our farmers – and in doing so, the nation, before it’s too late.”
