November 20, 2024 • 6 mins
Catching up with one of the Organisers of the farming protest that hit the streets of London yesterday.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well twenty four hours ago. Just over twenty four hours ago,
thousands of farmers gathered in Westminster Trektors people farmers from
all over the UK and protest against changes to the
inheritance text rules announced in the latest budget in the UK,
joining us out of the UK. One of the organizers,
Lincolnshire farmer Andy Ward, has just arrived Beck in a
(00:22):
snow covered area of Lincolnshire.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Andy good morning, Yes, hello, Brian, good morning to you.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You've had a hell of a trip back to the
family farm, have.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You, Yeah, we have. We're farm in the middle, in
the middle of the country sort of anybody any listeners know,
we're not that far from Nottingham, but we're in the
middle of the country and we're on the East coast
main line that if you go from London to Scotland
you go about fifteen minutes from the farm, so it's
a really good area for travel. And there's a mainline
(00:55):
station not far from me. But there was a train
broken down on the track mid afternoon and that's gone
and delayed all the other trains going into King's Cross
in London, so that's the laid the one coming out.
And then on top of that, We're just approaching the
station where I get off in Nottinghamshire and apparently there
was a chess baffer on the tracks. Train had to
(01:18):
stop and then it's now done about twenty miles an
hour for the last three miles when normally it'll be
doing one hundred and twenty mile an hour.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So Andy, you had a hell of a turnout in Wismond.
So they're saying something around ten thousand plus people. Why
a British farmers angry?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, we've really had enough now. It's the final straw.
Because the Labor Party got into power on July the
fourth at the last general election with an absolutely huge majority,
and it was because people had had enough of Conservatives
and so Labor got in. But there was a lot
of people didn't vote because they didn't want to vote Labor,
(01:58):
but they've had enough of the Conservative as anyway, Labor
got in. We had a budget just over two weeks
ago and they said that the Defra Minister, so death
is our regulatory department within the government that ren manages
the countryside and farming. They said, we will not change
inheritance tax and I'll explain that in a minute. We
will not change this we will not change that. We
(02:20):
value what you do as a farmer. And everything they
said they wouldn't do, they have turned turtle and they've
done it. And so inheritance taxes when we pass an
asset such as our farm down to our children, so
you pass it from one generation to the next. The
Conservatives over the last twenty or thirty years that you've
(02:42):
been able to pass that down tax free, which has
been hugely beneficial because it's meant food production is carried
on and generations of farming families can carry on and
still maintain, still stay in that family. But now that
they've put this as a twenty percent tax on it,
but they've set a threshold of a million pounds. Now
(03:05):
I'm not quite sure that what is in what that
is in your dollars, but a million pounds is a
threshold limit and they're saying that will protect most family
farms from inheritance tax. What an absolute load of rubbish.
A million pounds in the UK would buy you a
combine and two tractors, and that's it. So that is
(03:27):
what you can get. And all these assets come into it,
your land, your buildings, your machinery and all they're really
protecting are what we in the UK called lifestyle buyers,
where you'll get people in London and big cities who
obviously they make more money, their wages are higher. They
will come out into the countryside and they'll spend a
(03:47):
million pounds on a big house and twenty acres of
grass for pony padducts, and that protects them, it doesn't
protect the true family farm. And so we've got discrepants
seeing figures because they're saying that the million pounds and
inheritance tax is right, but then you've got personal tax
you can add on to that, and they're saying you
(04:08):
can get to three million pounds of tax before you
actually paying tax, which isn't correct. Then they're coming out
with figures and saying there's only five hundred farms are
affected in the UK, and again that's not correct because
they're using figures of again these lifestyle buyers who are
not farmers, but they're including those. So the whole discrepancy
(04:31):
of figures, Brian, that really just doesn't add up.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And you've got some heavy hitters on your side as well.
I know Jeremy Claxon was there with his message to
the government, please back down do you think the government
will back down?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Oh it's a tough one, Brian, because at the minute
Chancellor and Keir Starmer and the Labour Party are saying
absolutely no way, We've made our decision. They've got this
twenty billion pound black hole that just does my head
in every time they mention that, because they're they're creating
it by all the money they're wasting on on other things,
(05:04):
and they're saying they're not going to back down. But
we said yesterday and I did a speech on stage
the side of us organizing it all, had a few
minutes talking and I said, they've they've picked the fight
with the wrong people because farmers in the countryside we're
used to having challenges. We're used to having battles. Normally
it's with the weather and it's with it's with price
(05:26):
commodity prices. But those are minor things compared to or
the government's the minor thing compared to battling with the
with the weather and the prices. So if the government
want a battle, we'll certainly have a battle with then
we won't back down one bit.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So this is just the start in.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And absolutely we've said again you know that we said
to them. The government needs to realize this is this
is not the start of the end, it's the start
of the beginning. And we will keep going. We're not
going to back down.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
We wish you're the very best of lucky. I know
you want to get home now, into the covered hills
of Linkolagere, so we'll we'll let you go now. Thank
you so much for joining us and explaining it. Andy,
thank you so.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Much, No, thank you very so much. Let's keep in touch,
and you know I can give you another report in
a few weeks time or a month and just keep
it going. For your listeners are interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Absolutely they will be. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Great Thanks Brian,
Well twenty four hours ago. Just over twenty four hours ago,
thousands of farmers gathered in Westminster Trektors people farmers from
all over the UK and protest against changes to the
inheritance text rules announced in the latest budget in the UK,
joining us out of the UK. One of the organizers,
Lincolnshire farmer Andy Ward, has just arrived Beck in a
(00:22):
snow covered area of Lincolnshire.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Andy good morning, Yes, hello, Brian, good morning to you.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
You've had a hell of a trip back to the
family farm, have.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You, Yeah, we have. We're farm in the middle, in
the middle of the country sort of anybody any listeners know,
we're not that far from Nottingham, but we're in the
middle of the country and we're on the East coast
main line that if you go from London to Scotland
you go about fifteen minutes from the farm, so it's
a really good area for travel. And there's a mainline
(00:55):
station not far from me. But there was a train
broken down on the track mid afternoon and that's gone
and delayed all the other trains going into King's Cross
in London, so that's the laid the one coming out.
And then on top of that, We're just approaching the
station where I get off in Nottinghamshire and apparently there
was a chess baffer on the tracks. Train had to
(01:18):
stop and then it's now done about twenty miles an
hour for the last three miles when normally it'll be
doing one hundred and twenty mile an hour.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So Andy, you had a hell of a turnout in Wismond.
So they're saying something around ten thousand plus people. Why
a British farmers angry?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, we've really had enough now. It's the final straw.
Because the Labor Party got into power on July the
fourth at the last general election with an absolutely huge majority,
and it was because people had had enough of Conservatives
and so Labor got in. But there was a lot
of people didn't vote because they didn't want to vote Labor,
(01:58):
but they've had enough of the Conservative as anyway, Labor
got in. We had a budget just over two weeks
ago and they said that the Defra Minister, so death
is our regulatory department within the government that ren manages
the countryside and farming. They said, we will not change
inheritance tax and I'll explain that in a minute. We
will not change this we will not change that. We
(02:20):
value what you do as a farmer. And everything they
said they wouldn't do, they have turned turtle and they've
done it. And so inheritance taxes when we pass an
asset such as our farm down to our children, so
you pass it from one generation to the next. The
Conservatives over the last twenty or thirty years that you've
(02:42):
been able to pass that down tax free, which has
been hugely beneficial because it's meant food production is carried
on and generations of farming families can carry on and
still maintain, still stay in that family. But now that
they've put this as a twenty percent tax on it,
but they've set a threshold of a million pounds. Now
(03:05):
I'm not quite sure that what is in what that
is in your dollars, but a million pounds is a
threshold limit and they're saying that will protect most family
farms from inheritance tax. What an absolute load of rubbish.
A million pounds in the UK would buy you a
combine and two tractors, and that's it. So that is
(03:27):
what you can get. And all these assets come into it,
your land, your buildings, your machinery and all they're really
protecting are what we in the UK called lifestyle buyers,
where you'll get people in London and big cities who
obviously they make more money, their wages are higher. They
will come out into the countryside and they'll spend a
(03:47):
million pounds on a big house and twenty acres of
grass for pony padducts, and that protects them, it doesn't
protect the true family farm. And so we've got discrepants
seeing figures because they're saying that the million pounds and
inheritance tax is right, but then you've got personal tax
you can add on to that, and they're saying you
(04:08):
can get to three million pounds of tax before you
actually paying tax, which isn't correct. Then they're coming out
with figures and saying there's only five hundred farms are
affected in the UK, and again that's not correct because
they're using figures of again these lifestyle buyers who are
not farmers, but they're including those. So the whole discrepancy
(04:31):
of figures, Brian, that really just doesn't add up.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And you've got some heavy hitters on your side as well.
I know Jeremy Claxon was there with his message to
the government, please back down do you think the government
will back down?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Oh it's a tough one, Brian, because at the minute
Chancellor and Keir Starmer and the Labour Party are saying
absolutely no way, We've made our decision. They've got this
twenty billion pound black hole that just does my head
in every time they mention that, because they're they're creating
it by all the money they're wasting on on other things,
(05:04):
and they're saying they're not going to back down. But
we said yesterday and I did a speech on stage
the side of us organizing it all, had a few
minutes talking and I said, they've they've picked the fight
with the wrong people because farmers in the countryside we're
used to having challenges. We're used to having battles. Normally
it's with the weather and it's with it's with price
(05:26):
commodity prices. But those are minor things compared to or
the government's the minor thing compared to battling with the
with the weather and the prices. So if the government
want a battle, we'll certainly have a battle with then
we won't back down one bit.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So this is just the start in.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And absolutely we've said again you know that we said
to them. The government needs to realize this is this
is not the start of the end, it's the start
of the beginning. And we will keep going. We're not
going to back down.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
We wish you're the very best of lucky. I know
you want to get home now, into the covered hills
of Linkolagere, so we'll we'll let you go now. Thank
you so much for joining us and explaining it. Andy,
thank you so.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Much, No, thank you very so much. Let's keep in touch,
and you know I can give you another report in
a few weeks time or a month and just keep
it going. For your listeners are interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Absolutely they will be. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Great Thanks Brian,
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