On Tuesday, I will be joining a protest in Westminster for the first time in my life. Yes, me—a man more comfortable behind a laptop than in front of a megaphone, who once thought the rise of rural activists separated recycling properly. But something spurred me into action: the plight of British farmers under proposed changes to inheritance tax.
Now, I’m not a farmer. But for five years, I lived in Little Brington, a beautiful farming village in the Northamptonshire countryside. This is where I really got the essence of intergenerational farming. Families whose names have been carved into the same fields for centuries, their lives tied to the land like ancient roots. These families don’t just work the land—they are the land.
When I heard Rachel Reeves announce the proposed changes to inheritance tax, my first reaction was disbelief. These policies sound like they were dreamed up in some Whitehall echo chamber by people who think milk comes from Tesco and wheat comes pre-cut. The new laws, which could force families to sell off parts of their land to pay inheritance taxes, not only threaten their lives—they threaten their heritage, their histories, and, arguably, our food security.
If you’ve watched Clarkson’s Farm, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Jeremy Clarkson, the would-be agriculture champion, pulled back the pastoral curtain to reveal the poor economics of British farming. A farmer may have 400 or 500 acres of land worth £10,000 per acre, and a farm house and some machinery worth several millions. On paper, they are millionaires. But in reality? The average British farmer earns around £75,000 in a good year. Factor in bad weather, volatile market prices, and rising costs, and it’s easy to see how the balance sheet ends up looking like a bad joke.
But under these inheritance tax reforms, farmers are treated like wealthy oligarchs. Imagine a family that has spent generations tending to 500 acres of land, only to find that a tax upon the death of an ancestor or matriarch forces them to sell large chunks of their inheritance. It’s not just financially damaging—it’s emotionally and culturally damaging. And it happened at a time when we should be doing everything in our power to protect English farming.
Because let’s be clear: farming is not just about fields and tractors. It is about feeding the nation. British farmers are already facing relentless competition from cheap imports and the uncertainty of future trade deals. Add punitive estate taxes to the mix, and you’re essentially tearing down an industry that’s already hanging by a thread.
Living at Little Brington gave me a front seat to the quiet heroism of farming life. I remember waking up and hearing the sound of tractors before sunrise, seeing sheep frolicking in the winter wind, talking to neighbors, who would tell you when my grandfather bought the land we were standing on. Farming is not just a job—it is an identity, an inheritance, a calling.
But it’s also boring, underpaid, and often thankless. Watching Clarkson’s Farm reinforced the point that farming is not for the faint of heart. It’s a high-risk, high-pressure business where one bad season can spell disaster. However, these are the people who make sure that milk, meat, and vegetables end up on our plates. It’s a responsibility they shoulder with dignity, as policymakers heap more weight on their already stooped shoulders.
That is why I am here with the British farmers next Tuesday. I’ll be there in my cut-off coat, probably holding a thermos of coffee and wondering how I’m going to sing without feeling like an idiot. But I will also be there because this is not just a fight against farmers—it is a fight for all of us. Fighting for the places we love, the food we rely on, and the communities that make Britain what it is.
The proposed inheritance tax reforms aren’t just bad policy—they’re a betrayal of the people who keep this country fed. We are talking about families who work seven days a week, 365 days a year, under conditions that most of us would not spend a day in between. However, it is expected to swallow the idea that the government can come in and take over. a large part of their legacy simply because they had the courage to die.
This isn’t about special treatment for farmers—it’s about fairness. It’s about realizing that farming is not like other businesses. You can’t eliminate a few hundred acres without destroying the operation. You can’t put a price tag on centuries of gems. And you certainly can’t replace British farmers with unscrupulous conglomerates and expect the same care and commitment to the world.
Former Labor adviser John McTernan suggested that what Starmer was doing to the farms was ‘what Thatcher was doing to the coal mines’.
So, yes, I will be in Westminster. And I won’t just be against tax change—I’ll be standing up for farmers in Little Brington and elsewhere. To the people who wake up early to tend their flocks, who brave the rain and snow to harvest their crops, who live and breathe the world in a way most of us will never understand.
This isn’t just their fight—it’s ours too. Because if the farms are gone, we will see later what we have lost. And I, for one, order to let that happen without a fight.
If you would like to join the protest on Tuesday 19th November the organizers are asking people who plan to attend to register online first to work with the Metropolitan Police in managing numbers and to contact maps and the itinerary.
