U.K. Farmers Protest in London Over Inheritance Tax Change

Thousands of farmers gathered in central London on Tuesday in the biggest show of opposition to a policy announced by Britain’s center-left Labour government since it won power in July.

Angry at inheritance taxation changes outlined in last month’s budget by the chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, protesters carried placards reading “No farmers no food,” while a procession of tractors drove past Parliament, voicing a broader sense of grievance among some of those who live in the countryside who accuse successive governments of betraying their interests.

The change under Ms. Reeves’s plan applies to people who inherit agricultural assets worth more than a million pounds, about $1.3 million. They were previously exempt from inheritance tax, but will have to pay it at 20 percent — half the standard rate — from April 2026.

The tax would be payable in installments over 10 years interest free, and would still exclude many estates worth less than £3 million because of various allowances, including for married couples. Government figures suggest that 73 percent of farms would be unaffected.

But critics say that the end of the exemption will lead to some families having to sell farms rather than passing them on to the next generation. The protest against what some call the “tractor tax” follows a demonstration in Wales where Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke last week.

Britain’s farmers tend to be less disruptive when protesting than some of their counterparts in continental Europe. However, Tuesday’s demonstration has some echoes of one held in 2002, when a previous Labour government was in power and hundreds of thousands of people gathered in London to protest plans to ban fox hunting with dogs.