Trafalgar Square is not big enough for farmers' protest

Next week’s tractor tax’ demo has been moved to Whitehall

- DAVID MADDOX

Police and organisers of a massive protest by angry farmers have had to relocate the event in Westminster because Trafalgar Square is not big enough to contain the number of people who plan to attend.

The protest, due to take place on 19 November, is now expected to easily exceed the original 5,000 to 10,000 estimated by the Farming Forum, which is organising it.

The gathering of people from farming communities around the country is a response to chancellor Rachel Reeves’s controversial decision to impose a 20 per cent inheritance tax on farmland worth more than £1m for the first time since 1992.

Critics warn that the new tax grab will destroy family farms which make up around two-thirds of Britain’s agricultural base. The issue has been further enflamed by leading Labour figure John McTernan’s suggestion that the country does not need family farms.

A small protest, limited to 1,800 people, had been planned by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) but such was the strength of feeling on the issue that the Farming Forum organised a much bigger protest on the same day in nearby Whitehall.