A farmer has cancelled deliveries of sewage sludge in protest against Sir Keir Starmer’s “stinky” inheritance tax policy.
Social media influencer Tom Martin, 44, took the action which he believes is preferred to obstructing roads with tractors and upsetting Britons.
He said: “To be honest, I don’t like letting anyone down, but I think it’s a better protest than blocking roads or upsetting the public. Maybe Sir Keir will smell the dissatisfaction with this stinky tax policy.”
Tom was among the 13,000 people who descended on London last week to oppose changes that will see farmers pay inheritance tax on properties and land worth more than £1 million from April 2026.
The Daily Express’s Save Britain’s Family Farms crusade has demanded the Chancellor U-turn on this decision which risks decimating the sector for future generations.
Tom, who has amassed thousands of followers online through his bid to educate youngsters about the sector, said: “Looking at the budget as announced, there aren’t many family farms – and ours would be one of them – that wouldn’t be lost within a generation.
“In order to pay the tax you’d have to sell some land and some of your assets to pay it. You wouldn’t have to sell everything but the trouble is you’d be completely unviable.”
The fourth generation farmer on the land near Peterborough told how when he
He said: “I’m not a protester. I don’t look across the Channel at the French flinging manure all over the place and setting fires on the Champs-Élysées and think ‘brilliant, this is what we should be doing’.
“As many farmers, we’re reluctant objectors. We’d much rather just be getting on with it and frankly we – particularly within our communities and farming is a community organisation- value and we cherish the support of the people around us.
“I absolutely did not want to be doing a go-slow or blocking of anything.
“I heard another farmer say they were going to cancel their sewage sludge and I thought ‘that seems to be something which is pretty reasonable.’ It does put our water companies under a bit of pressure but if there’s a breakthrough then we can continue to take it.
“It’s not a co-ordinated action but it’s a small action that I can take.”
Tom told how he was not a “lone voice” when he called his local water company to cancel the sludge.
Every year, farmers in the UK take about 3.6 million tonnes of sewage sludge from water treatment plants and spread it on agricultural land.
It contains valuable organic matter and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and can therefore be very useful as a fertiliser or soil improver.
Withdrawing farms as an effective way to get rid of sewage waste would force bosses to find somewhere new to dump millions of tonnes of sewage.
The Government would have to get involved if this led to disposal problems, farmers have suggested.
Meanwhile members of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Scotland took part in a rally outside Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh yesterday (THURS) to demand the Scottish Budget to deliver increased and ringfenced funding for farmers.
One placard at the protest said “Save our Farmer, Sack Keir Starmer”
While a boy on his father’s shoulders held a sign that said “No farming, no future, no food”.
Sir Keir Starmer met privately with NFU President Tom Bradshaw on Monday.
Downing Street described the meeting as “constructive”, and suggested the “serious, grown-up” Government was directly confronting criticism of its plans.
The N010 spokesman added: “In the meeting they discussed the Government’s commitments to solidly protecting the interests of British farmers including in trade negotiations and in public sector procurement, as well as working together to ensure environmental land management schemes deliver for farmers.
“We will always meet with key stakeholders to hear their views, as that is what a serious, grown-up government does.
“But the Prime Minister took the opportunity to have a constructive conversation with Mr Bradshaw about why we believe the changes are the right approach and to discuss how they can work together to support British farmers.”
