President of the National Farmers Union, Tom Bradshaw expressed his disappointment.
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00:00An emotional president of the National Farmers Union, Tom Bradshaw, said at a press conference
00:07that members of the union would react with fury after what Mr Bradshaw called a disappointing
00:13meeting with the government.
00:14For several months we've been trying to get in front of Treasury Ministers. After the
00:19budget there was a flurry of activity that went quiet. And unfortunately today's meeting
00:24has been a disappointment doesn't describe how I feel at the moment. The meeting opened
00:32with a comment, I'm meeting with you because you asked to meet. Our fear from the start
00:39was that when this meeting was arranged it was so the Exchequer Secretary could say last
00:44week at the debate that he was meeting with the farming industry.
00:48The Labour government have imposed an inheritance tax affecting farm owners in what Labour say
00:53is an attempt to help fund public services. Farmers have been protesting all over the
00:59UK since the announcement. I spoke to some farmers at a recent protest at Westminster.
01:05I've come down to London today to join the march and the protest today. We feel very
01:10much that policies are being written by people in power who don't come and talk to the farmers
01:17and don't understand our viewpoints. You know, if we work together I'm sure something can
01:21be done kind of thing. But it's a very much a case of the policies have been done, the
01:26things have been done and there's just kind of feels like you've just got to deal with
01:29it. And that's why we're here trying to have a conversation. We've got representatives
01:34from the NFU like talking to MPs. We're not here spreading slurry on the road. We're here
01:39to have that mature conversation and let's go forward in it.
01:44My name is Neil Hudson. I'm the Member of Parliament for Epping Forest and I'm also
01:48a Shadow DEFRA Minister. So I'm here with the Shadow DEFRA team and Conservative colleagues
01:54and we are protesting, sending a very strong message to Keir Starmer's Labour government
01:59that they have got this family farm tax policy catastrophically wrong. This policy, if it
02:04comes in, will be so damaging to British farming. Families will go out of business and people
02:11will not be able to pass on their land to the next generation. And this is catastrophic.
02:15It's ill judged. They've not done an impact assessment and they've got to reverse it.
02:19My father couldn't come down because he's got to feed the cows. Yeah, farmers are on
02:23strike this week, but that's virtually impossible. The cows have got to be milked twice a day.
02:28There's a lot of farmers that can't come here. And I'm lucky enough to have taken the day
02:32off and come down here because my father can feed at home. So we're here representing all
02:37the lads and ladies at home that can't make it. And yet I know a lot of the schools, the
02:42children are wearing wellies to school. People are going to work in wellies. You know, we're
02:45all standing together because we're all believing in the same thing. Yeah, there'll be farmers
02:49who vote Labour, there'll be farmers, Plaid Cymru, Conservatives. And our political viewpoints
02:55that way might not disagree, but we all agree on the same thing here today, is that something
02:58needs to change.