Research commissioned by oven-chip producer McCain reveals that 42% of farmers have thought about quitting their farms in the last year, while 40% questioned whether they would still be farming within the next decade. The findings, based on a survey of 200 farmers, also showed that 77% said government policy was the biggest threat to the future of farming in this country.
Government policy under scrutiny
The findings should be ringing alarm bells across Westminster, according to an opinion piece by Duncan Barkes. Farming Minister Stephen Morgan must take these findings onboard and continue to work with the National Farmers' Union, Countryside Alliance and others to address these fears.
The government must create a climate where farmers feel valued and supported – not seen as an easy-target cash cow for the Treasury looking for a smash and grab method of getting more cash into their coffers.
Campaigning against the Family Farm Tax
The Daily Express crusade to Save Britain's Family Farms campaigned against the 2024 proposed policy of applying 20% inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1million. This forced ministers at the end of last year into a partial U-turn by increasing the threshold at which point agricultural property becomes liable for tax.
Television presenter Jeremy Clarkson ensured the issue made national headlines, and Tory shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins has done a terrific job in taking the fight to Labour in the chamber of the House of Commons. Kudos should also go to Labour MP Markus Campbell-Savours who defied his bosses and called on the party to ditch the tax, which saw him suspended from the Labour Party for his bold stance.
Food security and economic impact
It's estimated that the UK imports almost fifty per cent of all its food, which is a massive vulnerability for an island nation. The Country Land and Business Association recently published findings showing that nearly ninety per cent of rural family businesses have frozen investment because of the Family Farm Tax.
As a teenager, Barkes was an Arundel Young Farmer – working and socialising with farming families in rural West Sussex. He says the reality of farming is far removed from what a metropolitan Labour politician might think it is, describing it as a 24/7 operation in all kinds of weather with little respite.
Political responses
Labour minister Jenny Riddell-Carpenter bizarrely and insultingly declared that a vision of country pubs with warm ale and black labradors represents “a far-Right nostalgic vision” of Britain, and the Prime Minister did not once mention rural England in his conference speech last month.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch did feature the plight of farmers in her Conservative Party conference speech last week, pledging to scrap the Family Farm Tax completely should she win the next election, and highlighting that since Labour introduced the policy, it has driven some farmers to take their own lives.
As it stands, Labour has a big rural problem – farmers and communities feel they are under attack and not being listened to – and maybe it is because the Prime Minister is more comfortable in a Salford backstreet boozer than a muddy field in Lincolnshire – but he ignores their concerns at his peril.
