'It's a way of life' Tweed ancl tractors descend on streets of Westminster

Honking tractors carrying young farmers and a sea of people clad in tweed and wellies signalled the countryside had come to the capital yesterday to demand the scrapping of Labour's budget changes to inheritance tax on agricultural businesses.

- Joanna Partridge , Helena Horton & Ben Quinn

It would have taken more than plummeting temperatures and sleet to put off the thousands of food producers, many used to working in all conditions, from travelling from across the UK to Westminster.

Many had jumped on buses that forced their way through snow, while others had travelled the night before and were quietly gossiping about the Top Gear presenter turned farming celebrity Jeremy Clarksonjoining for dinner.

The volume of attenders was unexpected, given the rarity of farmers taking a day off, let alone in such numbers. The Metropolitan police estimated there were 13,000 participants at the peak of the rally, leading them to prevent the crowd from marching down Whitehall for safety reasons.

Many farmers came with donations for the City Harvest food bank, amounting to "tons and tons of food", according to the farmer Andrew Ward, one of the organisers of the rally.

Limited to a procession around Parliament Square, many clutched signs criticising "Farmer harmer Starmer," and waited to hear from politicians and Clarkson.

Despite the mainly good-spirited nature of the rally, there was gloom in the air as farmers discussed the morbid reality of their deaths or those of their parents, and how it could be accompanied by the demise of their family farm.