Farmers besiege Welsh Labour conference

Tractors and farm equipment have been used by irate farmers to storm the Welsh Labour Party conference in protest over the government's reforms to the inheritance tax.Campaigners say the "tractor tax" will spell the demise of many family farms, which is why more than fifty cars gathered near the Llandudno conference center early on Saturday morning. To express their opposition to a proposal to construct a 125,000-panel solar farm close to Fairpark, by the A30 between Carland Cross and Landrine, farmers and rural dwellers from Cornwall's green belt have gathered at New County Hall in Truro.It is anticipated that the prime minister will "defend our decisions in the Budget all day long" when he speaks at the conference later on Saturday.A convoy of machinery honking horns and flashing lights stretched into the distance on both sides of the coastal town’s promenade.The tractors held their loaders aloft with signs reading “Blood on Labour hands”, “No Farmers No Food” and “End Labour’s genocide on the countryside”, as party activists and officials filed into the conference centre.

Many of those taking part had been up before first light to milk cows and tend livestock before setting off for the protest.Peter Lawrence, the co-founder of Farmers Movement Cornwall, said: “We are in the middle of a food security crisis. We only produce half of what we eat in this country. If we had a problem getting flood into the UK we could face starvation. It’s not solar panels and solar farms per se we are against, but we object to prime food producing land being used for solar farms deployment.”Organisers of the Welsh farmer’s protest are planning to deliver a letter to Sir Keir Starmer urging him not to destroy an already struggling industry.Gareth Wyn Jones, a sheep farmer from Llanfairfechan and one of the organisers, said: “What Labour is doing now is biting the hands that feed them and it’s a massive mistake.

“They have awoken a sleeping giant and it’s time people understood we are not going to take any more. Enough is enough, we want change, we need support and we want the general public to get behind this campaign”

Speaking outside the Venue Cymru conference centre, Mr Wyn Jones, said the inheritance tax change would force farmers to increase the price of food.

He said: “It’s an industry that’s already broken, it needs support, inheritance tax is the final nail in the agricultural coffin.

“My family have farmed the land for 375 years and I could be the last generation. Can you imagine the feeling that we have that we need to protect these family farms?

“Every single person who has come here today, that’s what they are worried about, is making sure they can leave the land to the next generation so they can keep producing food affordable for this nation.”

Mr Wyn Jones said Welsh farmers would begin taking strike action on Sunday, adding: “This is a last resort. Many cannot afford this but there is growing anger in the countryside.”

Under Rachel Reeve’s Budget farming assets worth more than £1 million will be hit with a 20 per cent levy.

The Treasury has claimed the changes would only affect a small number of farms. But analysis by the National Farmers Union suggests that three-quarters of food produced by British farmers will be hit by the raid.

Campaigners claim the move will force many struggling families to break up their farms or sell them altogether.

Richard Bletcher, 39, who runs a farm in Buckley Flintshire, said his family’s livelihood and legacy was at stake.

“I’ve got young children, I’m a farmer’s son, once this inheritance tax comes in we’ll have to sell the farm,” he said. “We haven’t made any money for 10 years.

“I don’t think the government realises how serious this is because the food is still there.”Mr Bletcher said the policies unveiled in Labour’s budget had scuppered his children’s dreams.

“I’ve got a four and a six year-old who love the farm. If it carries on like this, it won’t be there for them. This is it, it’s now or never. If this comes in, it will be devastating.”

Thousands of farmers and their supporters are also set to descend on Parliament Square on Tuesday, with organisers warning that if ministers fail to listen to farmers’ demands then more militant groups will start taking direct action.

Jo Stevens, the Welsh Secretary, said farmers need to start succession planning to avoid inheritance tax.

She told Sky News: “If you do succession planning for your business you can get to a situation where you don’t have any inheritance tax applying to your estate.”

Ms Stevens said it is unlikely farmers in Wales will be affected by the change in inheritance tax policy for farms.

“The data that we have from the Treasury is that only 500 farming estates across the whole of the UK, we think, will be affected by the changes,” she said. “And the nature of farming in Wales is such that there are lots of much smaller farms … so we don’t have those very big, wealthy farm owners like you see in some parts of the United Kingdom, they aren’t in Wales.”