The Labour Government is reportedly drawing up emergency plans to deal with food shortages if farmers go on strike over the inheritance tax raid on farms by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Britain has been warned it could face its first-ever national farming strike over the tax. Welsh pressure group Enough is Enough called on “those who are able” to begin a week-long strike with the aim of stopping produce from leaving their farms.
And thousands of farmers are expected to protest in London on Tuesday. They claim the plans will destroy family farms across the country.
Now, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has said that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will set out its contingency plans for ensuring food security over the winter and summer.
Speaking on Sky’s Sunday Morning show, Haigh said: “Defra will be setting out plans for the summer, for the winter – and setting out … contingency plans, and ensuring that food security is treated as the priority it deserves to be.”
National Farmers’ Union (NFU) President Tom Bradshaw said he does not support withholding food as a way of protesting the tax. He said: “I don’t for one moment condone that anyone will stop supplying the supermarkets.
“We saw during the Covid crisis that those unable to get their food were often either the most vulnerable, or those that have been working long hours in hospitals [such as] nurses.
“That is something we do not want to see again, but this is in the Government’s control: they can sit down, they can talk to us and work a way through this.”
“That is not an NFU tactic – we do not support emptying supermarket shelves – but I do completely understand the strength of feeling that there is amongst farmers.
“They feel helpless today, and they’re trying to think of what can they do to try and demonstrate what this means to them. So I understand their strength of feeling, but we are not supporting that action.”
Meanwhile, a countryside champion has warned that Labour faces disaster at the ballot box if it loses support by forcing farming families to pay inheritance tax.
Baroness Mallalieu said the Government has “sacrificed goodwill”. She wants minsters to reconsider their decision to impose a 20% inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1million from April 2026.
Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins said: “Food security is national security. Labour’s family farm tax is both heartless and illogical.”
