Thousands of British farmers have rallied to parliament to protest against a tax they say will ruin family farms.

LONDON (AP) Thousands of British farmers gathered at parliament Tuesday with banners, loudspeakers and toy tractors to protest tax increases they say will hit struggling family farms hard.

British farmers are rarely as militant as their European neighbors, and the country has never seen protests as large-scale as those storming the cities of France and other European countries. But now farmers say they will step up measures if the government does not listen.

The flashpoint was a decision in last month's government budget to scrap a 1990s tax break that exempted agricultural property from inheritance tax. From April 2026, farms worth more than 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) will be taxed 20% when the owner dies and is passed on to the next generation.

“Everyone is angry,” said Olly Harrison, co-organizer of the protest that filled the streets around Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Downing Street office. He said many people wanted to take to the streets, block roads and speak fully French.

Organizers urged protesters not to bring farm machinery into central London, but a small number of tractors made their way through Downing Street, decorated with last straw and signs saying no farmers, no food.

They were cheered by a crowd that police estimated numbered 13,000. Some held signs saying 'Side with farmers, not Starmer'.

Children on toy tractors roamed around Parliament Square after the rally, which featured speakers including former Top Gear TV presenter and celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson. Another 1,800 farmers were invited to Congress for a major lobbying effort organized by the National Farmers' Union.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw said the human impact of the policy was unacceptable and was wrong. This is a kick in the legs under food security in the UK.

Climate change, global instability and erratic weather, exacerbated by the upheaval caused by Britain's 2020 exit from the European Union, have all added to the burden on farmers. Many believe the Labor government's tax changes, part of an effort to raise billions of pounds to fund public services, were the last straw.

He has lost money in four of the last five years, said Harrison, a fifth-generation farmer who grows grain near Liverpool in northwestern England. The only thing that kept me going was what I did for my children. And maybe a little gratitude for the land will allow you to keep borrowing and keep going. But now it's gone overnight.

Starmer's centre-left government said the majority of farms (about 75%) would not have to pay inheritance tax and that various loopholes could mean a farming couple could pass on up to £3 million ($3.9 million) worth of real estate to their children. Yes. -free. The 20% levy is half the 40% inheritance tax levied on other land and property in the UK.

Starmer's spokeswoman Camilla Marshall said the tax decision had been difficult but had not been reconsidered.

Supporters of the tax say it will raise farmland prices by taking money away from wealthy people who buy farmland as investments.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed wrote in The Daily Telegraph: He added that high land prices are robbing young farmers of their dreams of owning their own farms.

But the farmers' union said more than 60% of working farms could qualify for the tax relief. And while farms may be worth a lot on paper, they often yield little. Government figures show most farm incomes fell by more than 70% in the financial year ending February 2024. Average farm income ranged from around 17,000 pounds ($21,000) for free-range livestock farms to 143,000 pounds ($180,000) for professional poultry farms.

The past decade has been a tumultuous time. Many British farmers supported Brexit as an opportunity to move away from the EU's complex and much-criticized common agricultural policy. Britain has since made changes, including paying farmers not only to produce food, but also to restore nature and promote biodiversity.

Some farmers welcomed the move, but many believe the goodwill was squandered by bureaucratic mistakes from the previous Conservative and Labor administrations, as well as the failure of subsidies to keep up with inflation and new trade deals with countries including Australia and New Zealand. . Doors of cheap imports.

National Farmers Union vice-president David Exwood said the government had completely destroyed confidence in the industry.

Heidi Fermor, who helps run her family's fruit, vegetable and arable farm in southeast England, said she attended the first protest because government officials had no idea about the realities of farmers' lives.

Farming is difficult. We are very privileged and have a lovely life, but it is difficult, she said. We want to farm for a living not only today, but for future generations.

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