An arable farmer has told GB News their “backs are against the wall” as workers carry out their latest protest against the Government.
Speaking to the Late Show Live, farmers in Milton Keynes expressed their outrage at Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s inheritance tax raid as they held an overnight blockade of a food supply route.
Farmers are continuing their demonstrations against Labour despite the party’s climbdown on the tax threshold, increasing the amount from £1million to £2.5million.
Staging their latest protest in Milton Keynes, farmer Ed Pritchard argued on top of the inheritance tax raid, workers are protesting against the imports of “inferior” products into the UK food supply.
Mr Pritchard told GB News: “They haven’t completely backtracked on the inheritance tax, they’ve changed it from a million to two and a half million, but it’s not just about the inheritance tax.
“It’s also about the lack of money that we’re that we are being allowed generate as farmers. It’s about the trade deals with other countries, allowing inferior products into this country, and we’ve got our backs against the wall. We’re having a tough time at the minute.”
Revealing why they are now resorting to overnight protests as well as daytime demonstrations, he explained: “We’re just trying to find the time that’s that’s going to hit these regional distribution centres the hardest.
“As you know, we’ve tried early hours of the morning and not many of us can come in the middle of the day, because we’ve all got farmyards and livestock and crops to look after. So we’re up and go at night time. It’s surprising how busy these places are at this time of day.”
Arable farmer Ed Pritchard has hit out at the Labour Government as workers hold an overnight blockade
|
GB NEWS
Praising Tesco for their support for the farmers amid their ongoing protests, Mr Pritchard told the People’s Channel: “As you’re probably aware, Tesco’s has come out in support of us today.
“And what we don’t like is how the food, how imported produce is coming into this country at a substandard to the homegrown produce and the labelling that is used in supermarkets.
“And you’ve got to look very, very hard to see where that food has come from. It’s not always obvious that it’s not been grown in this country and then it could have been imported from the other side of the world, for all the customer knows.”
Criticising Sir Keir Starmer for “firing off the hip” against farmers, he added: “The way that Keir Starmer is currently carrying on and the way he’s firing off the hip, you’d think he’s trying to do away with us and rely completely on imports.
Farmers have been protesting the Chancellor’s policy for over a year | PA
“This is the crazy world we live in. The Government is stipulating how we should grow our crops and look after our livestock and grow the produce to a very high standard, which I’m not necessarily saying is a bad thing.
“But when that same Government who is stipulating how we should go about producing food or then importing food as a substandard to our own, it’s an absolute bonkers way of going on. Why on earth should they be able to carry on like that? It’s totally, completely wrong.”
Family farms and family‑run businesses have also won a significant legal breakthrough in their challenge to the Chancellor’s inheritance tax reforms, after the High Court agreed to fast‑track a judicial review into whether Rachel Reeves acted unlawfully when altering long‑standing reliefs.
Judges have approved a two‑day rolled‑up hearing, an exceptionally rare procedure that combines the permission stage with a full examination of the legal arguments, to scrutinise changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief.
Mr Pritchard told GB News that Keir Starmer is ‘firing from the hip’
|
GB NEWS
The accelerated hearing is expected to take place in February or March.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has previously said: “We’re backing British farmers as part of a new era of partnership to create a productive, profitable and sustainable future for farming.
“Our new Farming and Food Partnership Board will bring Government farming and the food industry together to better enable farm businesses to grow, invest and plan for the future.
“This is alongside delivering the largest nature friendly farming budget in history, protecting farmers in trade deals, making supply chains fairer to help secure the farming sectors future.”