UK: Over 10K Attend Farmers' Inheritance Tax Protest in London

Facts

• Thousands have attended a march in London to protest the UK Government's recent policy announcement concerning inheritance tax for farmers.^[1]
• Agricultural and business property inheritance tax relief will be capped at £1M (US$1.3M) starting from April 2026, with a value above the threshold taxed at 20%. The UK government has stated that, alongside other inheritance exemptions, a couple with farmland may apply to pass on up to £3M ($3.8M) tax-free.^[2][3]
• While the Treasury has estimated that this will not impact 72% of farms, calculating that 500 estates a year will pay the new tax, the National Farmers' Union has used Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs figures to claim 66% of the farm businesses have a net value of over £1M.^[4][5]
• In a thread on X, Metropolitan Police estimated over 10K people attended the event, while also noting an incident of tractors driving over a police barrier line.^[6]
• Figures attending the protest include Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and TV celebrity Jeremy Clarkson.^[7]
• Speaking from the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stated that while he 'understood' the concerns of farmers, he was 'confident that the vast majority of farms will not be affected.'^[1]

Sources: ^[1]BBC News, ^[2]Guardian, ^[3]telegraph.co.uk, ^[4]news.sky.com, ^[5]GB News, ^[6]X and ^[7]The Times.

Narratives

• Left narrative, as provided by mirror.co.uk and lbc.co.uk. Labour's decision to finally implement an inheritance tax on farmers is the right decision. Data shows that only the wealthiest of farmers will be affected, and the new rate is only half of what the average member of the public must pay when facing the inheritance bill. Wealthy farmers are in uproar only because their tax loophole has been closed — more money must be raised to fix the UK's broken economy, and complaints from the farming industry should remain at the Tories for their crippling post-Brexit policies.
• Right narrative, as provided by Spectator (UK) and telegraph.co.uk. The UK Government's plan to raise the inheritance tax on farmers is a stab in the back to industry. Having described the policy as 'desperate nonsense' before the General Election and now attempting to mislead the public with dodgy Treasury statistics, it's clear that there is nothing Labour won't do in pursuit of its socialist ideology. Farmers are the backbone of British society, and unless the government rightly backtracks on this policy, UK farms will fall like dominoes and unrest will only continue to grow.

Predictions