A petition signed by over 270,000 members of the public has been handed to 10 Downing Street calling on the government to ditch its farm inheritance tax plan.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw and NFU Cymru president Aled Jones, representing the four UK farming unions, handed over the petition.
It calls on Labour to reverse changes to agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR), which were announced in the autumn budget.
Under the proposal, farmers will, from April 2026, pay a 20% rate of inheritance tax on assets they inherit worth more than £1m.
The four unions, which also include NFU Scotland and Ulster Farmers' Union, say the move would deal a 'hammer blow' to farming families nationwide
They warn that many farmers are at 'breaking point' following decades of tightening margins, record inflation, increased production costs and extreme weather.
The NFU consulted with former Treasury and Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) economists to inform its analysis of the impact of APR reforms on farms.
The research found that up to 75% of working farms could be affected, with some facing tax bills running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Just this week, the OBR produced a new report saying that government changes to IHT for farmers will likely leave elderly farmers exposed, with no time to manage their way through the new policy.
In a joint statement, the four presidents of the UK farming unions said: “It gives us great strength to know that the public are backing British farming at this critical moment in time.
“The industry is not taking this lying down. We will continue fighting because this is not just about our farms, but our families, our future and your food.
“The government has woken a sleeping giant, as our mass lobby of MPs in Westminster and farmer led rally in Whitehall have demonstrated.”
The petition was handed in, along with a letter, as the UK-wide national day of unity gets underway, which is being co-ordinated by the NFU, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland and Ulster Farmers’ Union.
Farmers are gathering in towns and cities urging for more support and to underline that the industry will continue to fight in the face of the controversial IHT policy.
The four presidents added that the national day of unity “provides another opportunity to call on the government to overturn this abhorrent policy”.
They continued: “It’s a day to come together for everyone who believes that Britain’s family farms, and the high-quality food they produce, deserve better.
“We’re asking the chancellor to listen to farmers and meet with us to hear and fully understand our very real concerns.
"The UK farming unions will not sit quietly and let this go – we will continue fighting because this is not just about our farms, but our families, our future and your food.”
Next month, MPs are set for a major debate over the impact of the tax, after a petition on parliament.uk's website reached over 100,000 signatures.
The House of Commons petitions committee has agreed that a debate on the subject will take place on 10 February at 4:30pm.
