UK farmers join Day of Unity ahead of Autumn Budget
24th November 2025
Farmers across the UK are staging go-slow protests today to draw attention to the disastrous family farm tax, which is set to affect them from April 2026 if no changes are made in this Budget.
The nationwide movement emerged from a collaboration of ideas among several UK farming groups.
Day of Unity includes numerous go-slow protests on A-roads around the UK. Tractors are also set to be parked on overhead A-road bridges, with warning lights on this evening.
In Suffolk, around 100 tractors are driving through Ipswich towards Port of Felixstowe Road.
Spencer Campbell, a 20-year-old self-employed farm worker, said he attends the protest to safeguard his future in farming and ensure that his employers can continue to farm.
He also expressed serious doubts that the Labour government will back down on inheritance tax changes.
“It fills me with disappointment, and I very much suspect everything’s going to continue as it is now. I don’t think we’re going to win, which is awfully sad, but we don’t know if we don’t try. Ultimately, we’re not going to back down because we can’t afford it.
“There is no plan B, there is no other option, there is no money tree. It’s a tax we just can’t afford to pay,” Spencer added.
Day of Unity in Lincolnshire
Over 100 tractors from across Lincolnshire are also forming rolling roadblocks and legal slowdown actions at Immingham Docks and Killingholme today until 8pm.
Farmers are aiming to create maximum disruption throughout the day while remaining within the law, the organisers confirmed.
Humberside Police confirmed that the circular route runs from Killingholme Airfield along the A160 (Humber Road), past the petrol station and the oil refineries before returning via King’s Road roundabout.
This coordinated day of action is happening nationwide, with ports across the UK facing similar demonstrations to force the government and media to confront the escalating crisis facing British farmers.
While attending the rally in Suffolk, Cath Crowther, regional director of CLA in the East, said that the family farm tax is a “really bad policy”.
“It’s not going to generate the tax that the government keeps on saying it will. It is going to impact the vast majority of farms and wider family businesses,” she continued.
Ms Crowther explained that the policy could result in 200,000 job losses, a £1.9 billion reduction in tax revenue and further pressure on overall tax income.
“It’s an unaffordable tax. On paper, farmers look wealthy, but that value is tied up in land, buildings, machinery and tractors that are required to grow food and to run farms. That is not cash unless those assets are sold. And on death, there’s no value there, so there are not the funds to be able to pay inheritance tax.”
Confusion ahead of Budget
In November last year, chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that agricultural property relief would be cut to 50% for farms valued over £1 million.
The Country Land and Business Association then estimated that 70,000 farms will be hit by the new legislation, forcing many to sell land or take out loans to pay the tax.
Recently, both media and the farming community have speculated that the Labour government may abandon or alter its IHT plans. However, the latest statement from Dame Angela Eagle offers farmers little hope for change.
The farming minister said: “Despite some of the speculation in the press, there’s no likelihood that will happen. The announcements have been made, and the situation will be as it was announced.
“[…] “I’m afraid there aren’t going to be any changes with respect to the announcement that were made previously about inheritance tax in this instance. We have been in discussions, the Treasury have made their announcements, and they aren’t going to move.”
She claimed that last year’s Budget “put the public finances back on a firm footing” and “provided an urgent cash injection into our faltering public services”, but since then “the world has thrown even more challenges our way”.
She listed the threat of tariffs, volatile supply chains keeping the cost of everyday essentials high, and pressure to increase defence spending, as being among the challenges.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch took a savage swipe at the chancellor, calling the speech “one long waffle bomb” and a “laundry list of excuses”.
Meanwhile, shadow chancellor Mel Stride said Reeves had “made an emergency speech because she is panicking about the speculation she has fuelled”.
A DEFRA spokesperson responded to the protests, saying: “Farmers are stewards for our nation’s land and for our food security. Farming also plays a central role in our mission to kickstart economic growth.
“That is why we are backing them through new technology, streamlined regulation and our nature-friendly farming schemes that are helping farmers produce food for the nation. Our reforms to Agricultural and Business Property Relief are vital to fix the public services we all rely on.”
READ MORE: ‘We don’t know if we don’t try’ – Suffolk farmers take part in tractor rally
READ MORE: East Anglia farmers to host tractor run on Day of Unity
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