This week, the government declared the “death of globalisation.” If that’s true, then we need to prime the domestic economy to stand on its own two feet.
Whilst the world watches the markets, for farms and family businesses in the UK, it’s not Donald Trump driving them to the brink — it’s their own government.
Rising national insurance has made creating jobs harder. Inheritance tax changes have forced businesses to funnel what little profit they make into tax planning, not investment. And English farmers, promised new schemes to support nature-friendly food production, are still reeling from their sudden cancellation.
Now Trump wants us to eat chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef.
At least government is starting to see the damage. Minette Batters’ appointment to lead a farm profitability review, alongside a new Rural Growth Taskforce, is a quiet admission that things are broken. But reviews and taskforces are jam tomorrow when support is needed now. Farmers and rural businesses can’t wait — not when the policy environment is this hostile.
Government still seeks a trade deal with the US. Free trade works when it’s fair. Right now, British farmers grow 65% of the food that feeds 70 million people — a quiet triumph of hard work and high standards. But if ministers allow a flood of lower-standard food that would be illegal to produce here, it will be as cruel an assault on rural Britain as any tax policy.
Meanwhile, the Treasury has ignored the outcry over inheritance tax since last year’s budget. Research from Family Business UK shows Rachel Reeves’s reforms will cost over 200,000 jobs this parliament and shrink the tax base by £1.9bn. It’s an unprovoked attack that leaves the economy — and the state — worse off. Fixing it will mean taxing or borrowing more.
Privately, ministers, officials and Labour MPs admit the policy is a disaster. Only pride blocks a U-turn.
Now is the time to take their medicine. Government’s own figures suggest rural businesses could deliver £40 billion in new growth with the right policy support. This isn’t just lost growth — it’s lost innovation, jobs, and in some cases, avoidable poverty.
If globalisation is dead, British farming and rural businesses must live. But first, it needs a government that will fight for them, not against them. If that fight doesn’t start now, when will it?