Anyone who has listened to Jeremy Clarkson or Kaleb Cooper recently knows that British agriculture is already on the brink. Farmers work tirelessly, face razor-thin profit margins and struggle to keep family farms operating in a system that is unfavorable to them.

Then along comes Rachel Reeves and erases what little hope these hard-working families had left. The pressures on British agriculture are enormous. Between rising costs, burdensome regulations and relentless bureaucratic hurdles, making even the slightest profit has become almost impossible.

Inheritance tax (IHT), an essential factor in the continuity of family farms, has become one of the final nails in the coffin. Yet Labor’s budget goes even further, launching a brutal attack on British agriculture and rural communities with changes that will devastate family farms.

Although family farms benefit from a limited concession, taxed at 20% after £1 million has been allocated, this is still not enough to keep most farms viable once passed on to the next generation. However, Labour’s latest proposal would drag even more farms into this tax trap.

Family farms make up around 98% of all UK farming, anchoring local economies, supporting communities and strengthening national food security. With Labor’s changes to inheritance tax, these small farms are disappearing. Rachel Reeves and her team don’t seem to understand the unique nature of agriculture.

This land is not an “asset” in the sense that urban bureaucrats understand it; it is the very foundation of farmers’ livelihoods and the continuity of food production. Yet Labour’s approach appears to be to tax and crush farmers as if they were luxury estate owners.

Labor claims this fiscal aggression is necessary to curb the influence of wealthy investors who buy farmland as a tax shelter. But in reality, it’s small and medium-sized farms that will suffer, forced to sell their land or close their doors completely when they can’t afford a crippling tax.

This is a simplistic and insensitive approach from a party that appears completely ignorant of the economic engine that family farms represent in the UK. With every farm that fails, we lose part of our food sovereignty, moving us closer to dependence on expensive imported products, often of lower quality, and vulnerable to global price spikes and supply chain disruptions. ‘supply.

This is simply economic and cultural aggression orchestrated by a Labor government that has no understanding of reality. Reeves and his colleagues clearly assume that businesses can simply absorb the hit.

They are unaware that family farms do not generate infinite profit margins. The average farmer in the UK earns a fraction of what MPs like Reeves earn, but Labor seems determined to wring them out to fuel their reckless spending agenda.

And what experience does Reeves, Keir Starmer or anyone on the Labor front have in running a business? None. They have never faced the harsh reality of payroll or the difficult choice of keeping the lights on during difficult times.

They just imagine budgets and taxes that look great on paper but devastate people in real life. Under Labour’s tax crackdown, farmers across the country will be forced to sell land that has been in their families for generations, closing down the farms that formed the backbone of rural Britain.

The impact will not only be felt by farmers. This will ripple through the entire local food chain, crushing small businesses, local suppliers and the communities that depend on them.

Labor policies are not only wrong, they are reckless and destructive. They reveal a deep disconnect between Westminster and the countryside, between policymakers who make a living from taxpayers’ money and farmers who make a living from the land.

Britain deserves better than politicians who plunder family farms with one hand while proclaiming their commitment to hard-working families with the other. For the sake of our rural communities, our local economies and the future of British agriculture, it is time to oppose this grossly unfair Budget. Aren’t farmers Labour’s so-called workers?

Britain’s farmers are not cash cows for the ideological whims of the Labor Party – they are the lifeblood of this nation. If Labor has its way, there will be little left of this vital force.

Richard Thomson was the UK Reform candidate for Braintree in the 2024 general election.