What is it that Labour has against farmers? Perhaps it’s the fact that farmers aren’t part of the metropolitan elite, and tend to hold on to their common sense views rather than being swayed by fashionable in-vogue ideologies.
But most people know that no farmers means no food. When we buy our burgers for the summer barbecue, or our turkey for Christmas Day, a British farmer has usually done the graft to get it there.
This has never been more clear in people’s minds. Since the invasion of Ukraine, food security is a regular part of political discussion.
Importing food might work good and well for a lot of the time, but disruption to global supply chains caused by wars and natural disasters can leave our shelves empty. We have to back our farmers to ensure that we can be self sufficient when it comes to our staple ingredients.
But Labour just don’t seem to get it. Clarkson’s Farm has passed them by.
This started in Wales, when the Labour Welsh Government bought forward plans to force farmers to give up huge amounts of their land for tree planting and other green schemes.
Andrew RT Davies says farmers are being directly targeted by Labour
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These plans were roundly condemned by the industry, and the Welsh Government’s own assessment of the plans said they would result in 5,500 job losses and a £200million loss to the rural economy.
It’s no surprise that this drove farmers to the Senedd in Cardiff Bay in their thousands to protest against the measures.
Sadly, during Rachel Reeves’ Budget, farmers were dealt another huge blow, that could spell the end for the family farm as we know it.
Thanks to Labour, from next April, the agricultural exemption for inheritance tax will end, meaning that every time a family farmer dies, the government gets to take a massive chunk of the business.
Only last year Keir Starmer looked farmers in the eye at the NFU conference and told them that he knew that losing a farm was not like losing another business and that the existential threats to farming were “not on”.
Labour promised in their manifesto to “champion British farming”. They lied.
Starmer was clear that there would be no new taxes or tax rises beyond those he had mentioned in Labour’s manifesto. He lied.
By imposing a devastating 20 per cent death tax on the family farm, many small and medium-sized family farms will be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in tax before they can be passed on.
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If we erect barriers between farmers and their children, we risk exporting our capacity to farm and rear livestock overseas. Wales and the UK’s food security will be greatly diminished.
Farmers are being directly targeted by Labour. To quote a social media post by Jeremy Clarkson to Britain’s farmers after the Budget: “Just look after yourselves for five short years and this shower will be gone.”
All we can do is hope that at the end of the next five years there is still a farming industry to save.
