Clarkson urges Starmer to ‘admit farm tax mistake’

Despite the freezing rain, an estimated 20,000 people attended a protest in London last week over the changes to inheritance tax for farmers, announced in Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget.

Among those at the rally, which stretched from Horse Guards to Parliament Square, was television presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who told the crowd “it’s the end for farmers”.

Speaking directly to the Government, Mr Clarkson — whose show Clarkson’s Farm is a hit — added: “For the sake of the farmers here today, and those who are at home paralysed by a fog of despair, admit that this was a mistake and back down.”

New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also took to the stage, assuring farmers that the Tories would repeal the inheritance tax relief cuts at “the very first opportunity”. She labelled the Labour plans as “so obviously unfair, and so obviously cruel”.

Baroness (Ann) Mallalieu, president of the Countryside Alliance and Labour peer, told the crowd that she was “ashamed and embarrassed” at how the Government was treating farmers.

Many of the slogans on signs and T-shirts of the defiant crowd focused on Sir Keir Starmer, but the Prime Minister was attending the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. From interviews in Brazil, Sir Keir said he understood farmers’ concerns and “wants to support” them, but added “the vast majority” would be unaffected.
This statement is heavily refuted by the farming community. From April 2026, inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1million, which were previously exempt, will be liable to the tax at 20%.

The Government says it will affect the wealthiest 500 estates each year, but the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and the CLA have estimated that up to 70,000 farms worth more than £1m could be affected.

Many farmers argue that while they are asset-rich — in terms of their land, buildings and livestock — they are cash poor and the changes would mean they would have to sell up to be able to pay the tax.

Ahead of the protest, around 1,800 NFU members met near Parliament as part of a mass lobby of MPs. The group’s president, Tom Bradshaw, gave an impassioned speech, describing the tax changes as destructive, a “stab in the back” for farmers, wrong and unacceptable.