In the early hours of the morning, 16-year-old Tom Lucas climbed into his 1970 Massey Ferguson tractor, called in sick to college, and embarked on an eight-hour journey to London—driving at just 16 miles per hour.
The young farmer from Cambridgeshire made the journey to join hundreds of farmers and their vehicles—tractors, farm trucks, and even tanks—lining Whitehall in protest against Labour’s planned inheritance tax reforms. The proposed changes would introduce a 20% tax on farms valued at more than £1 million, a move that has sparked an unprecedented backlash from farmers and the wider food industry.
For Lucas, the prospect of his family losing the 130-acre arable farm they have owned for a century is “absolutely awful.” He explained:
“If I want to take over our little family farm, then I’ll have to find quite a lot of money. What I would pay towards the inheritance tax is less than I’d turn over in a year. It would take us five years to pay that off, and you should be taking a wage out of it yourself.”
“I don’t know any farmers who take a wage themselves. They’re all just working for the love of it.”
Similar concerns were raised by Richard Shepherd, a dairy farmer from Cheshire, who attended the protest with his parents and wife. With an inheritance tax bill of £1 million, he fears the loss of working capital will cripple their business.
“The problem is that we’ll have to sell land to help pay that, and all of a sudden, we start losing the capital we need to produce milk and keep the farm running.”
His father, Ivan Shepherd, added that farmers “don’t take time off”, recalling how he had worked several hours on the farm before heading to London for the protest.
The demonstration, organised by Save British Farming, follows months of mounting pressure on the government. Supermarkets have backed the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in calling for a reversal, and thousands of farmers have marched in London since the budget announcement in November.
Veteran farmer James Hardstaff, whose Nottinghamshire farm has been in his family for over 300 years, described the policy as a “heritage tax” that could force farms to sell land and reduce production.
“It would have big implications on our family. It’s going to be rough.”
Hardstaff, who still works past retirement age, explained that rising costs have already made farming increasingly unsustainable, and the proposed tax reforms would add further financial strain.
Despite the protests, Labour has refused to reverse its position on the 20% inheritance tax. The policy has drawn widespread criticism from farmers, supermarkets, and rural communities, with fears that it could undermine British agriculture and push many family-run farms out of business.
As the government faces growing opposition from the farming sector, the protests highlight a deepening divide between policymakers and the agricultural community, with many fearing that centuries-old farms could be lost in the coming years.
