Yorkshire farmers to join National Day of Unity to stop the family farm tax
Yorkshire farmers will join the NFU’s National Day of Unity this weekend as pressure builds on government to halt the controversial family farm tax which could devastate family farms across the country.
On Saturday, January 25, towns in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will see farmers gathering to thank the British public for their overwhelming support, and to underline to MPs that our campaign will not stop until the government’s proposed changes to inheritance tax are finally subject to consultation and proper scrutiny.
With all UK farming unions participating, the day’s events will vary from region to region but three simple messages will run through all of them:
• This tax is badly thought out and will crush family farming in Britain.• The wonderful support of the public means everything to farmers.• We are not going away. This will go on as long as it needs to go on.
Yorkshire farmers and growers will gather in front of Selby Abbey between 10am and 1pm on Saturday.
There will be tractors on display, locally produced food and donations will be collected for Selby food bank.
NFU member and event organiser Richard Bramley an arable farmer based near York, said: “I think it’s massively important that we as farmers connect with the general public and help them to realise that the family farm tax issue is something that will impact everyone.
“The tax could lead to small and medium-sized family farms going out of business and this will impact the entire rural economy; it could lead to food price rises in supermarkets, it would seriously harm farmers’ ability to deliver national food security and the huge amount of great work many farmers are doing to support the environment and protect the countryside would likely discontinue.”
“There is a great deal of public support out there for farmers and we really want to take the opportunity to thank people for that.”