Farmers from West Devon joined a high-profile anti-tax protest in London as the Chancellor unveiled her controversial Budget.

Tractors from across the country made their presence felt with placards on Wednesday, November 26 to show their continued opposition to an inheritance tax (announced in Rachel Reeves’ first Budget last year) imposed on agricultural property for the first time.

Tractors in convoy on their way to London – travelling overnight – were cheered on their way on roadsides and from motorway bridges many displaying banners saying kill the farming tax and warn of the loss of UK-grown food.

Previously exempt from inheritance tax, some assets and land will now be liable on value above £1m from April 2026. This tax was immediately met with nationwide protests, including a tractor rally in Tavistock when the farming minister visited.

The latest Budget seeks to mitigate the new tax by allowing the transfer of unused £1m tax allowance to a surviving spouse/partner, which means paying the tax is delayed and the surviving spouse would have a £2m tax allowance, meaning inheriting children would not pay tax on the first £2m of assets.

An amendment has also secured allowing the ta to be paid gradually across ten annual payments. However, these modest concessions have not quelled farmers’ fears and they are still calling for the tax to be permanently scrapped.

Farmers claim the inheritance tax would still hit small farms disproportionately and that they would not be able to afford the tax bill without selling assets. This would make farms uneconomic to pass onto descendants and push them out of business, seeing them sold to richer people who won’t farm the land. The loss of farms affects more than just farmers as it could affect the nation’s ability to feed itself, farmers warn.

Mat Cole, who owns a family livestock farm near Yelverton, said: “As a farmer I fully support the protests in Westminster against the introduction of the inheritance tax – or farming tax as we call it. The tax puts my farm and many others at risk.

“All the latest Budget has done is defer the payments and the idea of passing on the bill debt to your tax is merely tinkering round the edges. We should be treated differently from many businesses because of our strategic importance in food supply.

“Also, as far as making profits is concerned, we are different because we cannot dictate our prices. We buy at retail prices, but sell at wholesale prices, which has a strong negative impact on our profits and at what level what we are valued and taxed.”

Peter Knight, an agricultural contractor from Stowford near Lewtrenchard, took his tractor to the rally with brother Alfie, driving overnight for ten hours to join others: “I went to London as I wanted to support the farming community, with hope that in the future they may stop the inheritance taxes which will destroy the family farms of our country,

“I felt proud supporting my farming community in London. By the time we got to London at 6am there was 20 of us.”

After their long journey they were blocked from entering Whitehall by police. But were not deterred: “In the end we parked the tractors in the middle of a roundabout next to Whitehall. We’d happily go to London again to support the farming community.”