GB News Reporter
Guest Reporter
Thousands of farmers and rural folk have brought central London to a standstill today in protest of Rachel Reeves’ inheritance tax hike.
The Chancellor has slapped farmers with a 20 per cent tax on assets over £1million, a fatal measure for many asset-rich but cash-poor farms who won’t be able to pay the bill out of farm income.
Farmers’ plight has ‘cut through’ to Britons with recent polling from More in Common finding the public is overwhelmingly backing farmers in their battle with Labour.
Almost six in ten think farms should be exempt from inheritance tax- including almost half of Labour voters- in research that proves Starmer and Reeves may have underestimated the consequences of their tax raid on such a valued part of British society.
Part of the public’s reason for backing farmers is the amount the Treasury hopes to raise- a paltry £520million.
This would fund the NHS for one day and five hours and is 50 times smaller than the amount Reeves’ NIC hike will raise, prompting many to believe this is a politically motivated attack on a section of society Labour believe ‘to not be their people’.
In response, massive demonstrations have been held across the nation today, with several famous faces in attendance.
Jeremy Clarkson, perhaps the nation’s most famous farmer, made a speech to 10,000 protestors today, unleashing a blistering attack on the BBC and the newly elected Labour government.
The TV star, who recently suffered a heart attack, said: "I am not supposed to be talking but we have got a few things to say. I am going to start with a bit of honesty.
“I lived in London for 25 to 30 years and when I was here, like a lot of people who live in cities and go on Twitter, I thought farmers drove around in Range Rovers, moaning, until February and then you all went skiing.
“And then about five years ago I started farming and I have come to understand just how unbelievably difficult it is and complicated and dangerous and cold, very cold. Even when we’re harvesting it is cold.
He went on to add that the cost of running the farm staggered him, giving an example that a medium-sized tractor cost £200,000, with a combined harvester costing half a million.
The Diddly Squat Farm owner continued: “You get people saying, ‘Well I didn’t pay that. I can get a chicken from abroad’. Yeah, you can, but it is so full of chlorine it tastes like a swimming pool with a beak.
“And then you have the environmentalists endlessly shouting at you. ‘Oh your cows, they’re contributing to the composition of the gasses in the atmosphere and your fertilisers are ruining the trouty freshness of our streams and rivers’ and I know sometimes you just think what is the point?
“We’re just trying to make breakfast, lunch and dinner (and) it is just this endless whining with money in it. And the regulations, some of you down there will know what I am on about.
“I know a lot of people all across the country, all walks of life took a bit of a kick on the shin from the budget. You lot got a knee in the nuts and a light hammer blow to the back of the head.
“We had pickup trucks being reclassified as company cars, 211 percent tax rise there. £50 carbon tax on a bag of fertiliser. The basic farm payments altered in such a way, that we are getting a lot less than we thought we were going to get.
“Rachel Reeves has told us that 72 percent of farms are going to be unaffected by this, and I have just been interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire for Newsnight... Let’s see if we can educate her here.
“How many people are from a family farm? Right, I hope we can see that, and we have our cameras from the show to see. That is a lot of hands. I want Newsnight to see that.
“Nobody is going to be affected’, Rachel Reeves said so... Since when was the BBC the mouthpiece of this infernal government?”
Laughing at his own comment and realising he may have been getting too passionate, he drew back and concluded: “I have got to get the brakes on. The trouble is I am off my t**s on paracetamol up here, I don’t know what I am saying.”
Find Out More...
The Chancellor has slapped farmers with a 20 per cent tax on assets over £1million, a fatal measure for many asset-rich but cash-poor farms who won’t be able to pay the bill out of farm income.
Farmers’ plight has ‘cut through’ to Britons with recent polling from More in Common finding the public is overwhelmingly backing farmers in their battle with Labour.
Almost six in ten think farms should be exempt from inheritance tax- including almost half of Labour voters- in research that proves Starmer and Reeves may have underestimated the consequences of their tax raid on such a valued part of British society.
Part of the public’s reason for backing farmers is the amount the Treasury hopes to raise- a paltry £520million.
This would fund the NHS for one day and five hours and is 50 times smaller than the amount Reeves’ NIC hike will raise, prompting many to believe this is a politically motivated attack on a section of society Labour believe ‘to not be their people’.
In response, massive demonstrations have been held across the nation today, with several famous faces in attendance.
Jeremy Clarkson, perhaps the nation’s most famous farmer, made a speech to 10,000 protestors today, unleashing a blistering attack on the BBC and the newly elected Labour government.
The TV star, who recently suffered a heart attack, said: "I am not supposed to be talking but we have got a few things to say. I am going to start with a bit of honesty.
“I lived in London for 25 to 30 years and when I was here, like a lot of people who live in cities and go on Twitter, I thought farmers drove around in Range Rovers, moaning, until February and then you all went skiing.
“And then about five years ago I started farming and I have come to understand just how unbelievably difficult it is and complicated and dangerous and cold, very cold. Even when we’re harvesting it is cold.
He went on to add that the cost of running the farm staggered him, giving an example that a medium-sized tractor cost £200,000, with a combined harvester costing half a million.
The Diddly Squat Farm owner continued: “You get people saying, ‘Well I didn’t pay that. I can get a chicken from abroad’. Yeah, you can, but it is so full of chlorine it tastes like a swimming pool with a beak.
“And then you have the environmentalists endlessly shouting at you. ‘Oh your cows, they’re contributing to the composition of the gasses in the atmosphere and your fertilisers are ruining the trouty freshness of our streams and rivers’ and I know sometimes you just think what is the point?
“We’re just trying to make breakfast, lunch and dinner (and) it is just this endless whining with money in it. And the regulations, some of you down there will know what I am on about.
“I know a lot of people all across the country, all walks of life took a bit of a kick on the shin from the budget. You lot got a knee in the nuts and a light hammer blow to the back of the head.
“We had pickup trucks being reclassified as company cars, 211 percent tax rise there. £50 carbon tax on a bag of fertiliser. The basic farm payments altered in such a way, that we are getting a lot less than we thought we were going to get.
“Rachel Reeves has told us that 72 percent of farms are going to be unaffected by this, and I have just been interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire for Newsnight... Let’s see if we can educate her here.
“How many people are from a family farm? Right, I hope we can see that, and we have our cameras from the show to see. That is a lot of hands. I want Newsnight to see that.
“Nobody is going to be affected’, Rachel Reeves said so... Since when was the BBC the mouthpiece of this infernal government?”
Laughing at his own comment and realising he may have been getting too passionate, he drew back and concluded: “I have got to get the brakes on. The trouble is I am off my t**s on paracetamol up here, I don’t know what I am saying.”
Find Out More...