Passion, fear and optimism: What Shropshire farmers made of huge Inheritance Tax protest - and what comes next

Farmers from across Shropshire and Staffordshire joined thousands at a rally in Westminster in London with Jeremy Clarkson and Nigel Farage among the well known faces in the crowd. Some Shropshire farmers also met with county MPs to express their fears in person.

Under plans unveiled in the autumn Budget on October 30, Inheritance Tax would be levied at 20 per cent on agricultural assets above £1 million, which includes livestock, farmhouses, sheds, and machinery - although Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that in some cases the threshold could in practice be about £3 million.

Graham Price spoke to the Shropshire Star from a coach as it was leaving central London for the long trip back to Shropshire.

"We've had a very interesting day, attending both the rally and the lobby of MPs, where we managed to meet three of our five Shropshire MPs [Julia Buckley for Shrewsbury, Helen Morgan for North Shropshire and Stuart Anderson for South Shropshire].

"Our hope is that the number of people and the passion shown will help the government realise their plans on Inheritance Tax need amending.

"We feel that [Labour] have come to this problem by using the wrong data."

He said he feared that very small farms - "pony paddocks" - were being included in the government's financial analysis and "skewing" the figures being used by the Treasury.

"As farming businesses we don't think it will achieve what they're trying to do. They're trying to target the very, very large farms... but small farms are being caught in the crossfire as unintended targets.

"What we would be happy to accept would be an increase in tax on production, rather than a tax on assets after an unfortunate death in the family."

Asked about the general mood on the bus home, Mr Price said it was "optimistic".

"We farmers are always optimistic, aren't we? We've been to see our MPs and I think there is certainly a little bit of positivity that that the MPs have listened to us."

Shrewsbury farmer Ed Tate took "an ill-afforded day from work" to attend the protest in support of Shropshire's more than 3,600 family farms.

Afterwards he said: "It is of vital importance because an untested, untried and unmodelled Treasury plan has been brought in to tax the very rich and has instead ended up penalising the smaller family farms.

"Talking to the police, there were unexpectedly high numbers, which just goes to underline the horror that smaller family farms have taken the news in this recent Treasury budget.

"I personally fear for many of my neighbours and I fear for the long-term food and environmental security of the United Kingdom.

"I want to pass on a viable, vibrant and productive farm to the next generation. This tax puts the succession in serious jeopardy.

"We rely on our constituency MPs to accurately reflect the very deep concerns, anger and worry that their farming constituents feel, and I would say that to be able to speak to an MP, for Julia [Buckley] to give us time is a really good start for this conversation. We rely on her to accurately reflect family farmers' real worries."

Under plans unveiled in the autumn Budget on October 30, Inheritance Tax would be levied at 20 per cent on agricultural assets above £1 million, which includes livestock, farmhouses, sheds, and machinery - although Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that in some cases the threshold could in practice be about £3 million.

Here’s a look at the rally in pictures: