A General Debate on Rural Affairs will take place from around 5pm. The House will then move to an adjournment debate on improving mental health in farming and agricultural communities.
It is likely that these debates will centre around the announcements made in the Budget and the family farm tax.
You can watch the debates on Parliament TV.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “Since the Budget, I’ve heard about distressed elderly parents who are having to apologise to their children in tears for something that isn’t their fault, telling them they’re sorry because they feel they’re now a burden on the family.
“I’ve heard from families who can’t see any way they can plan for a future which doesn’t result in losing their business. Men and women who’ve spent years building up farm businesses now wondering what’s the point in carrying on when it’s going to be ripped apart.
“The feelings of anger, betrayal and despair are palpable. There is already a mental health crisis in the farming community. In 2021, a survey by farming charity RABI showed that over a third of the farming community had experienced depression and around half had experienced anxiety. And now this family farm tax is exacerbating this crisis.
“The vast majority of the people who’ll bear the brunt of this family farm tax aren’t wealthy people with huge cash reserves hidden away. They are families that have often spent generations building up their farm businesses to provide food for the nation, often on very tight profit margins. Their businesses have struggled through all the changes caused by Brexit, they’ve suffered years of being squeezed to the lowest margins imaginable with costs of production skyrocketing, and they’ve been battered by increasingly extreme weather conditions. They have nothing left to give.
“We have been speaking to MPs ahead of the debates in Parliament to ensure the impact on family farms is front and centre of discussions today. With our mass lobby of MPs only a week away, we will be continuing these conversations to ensure the pressure to reverse the family farm tax is not only coming from farmers, the public and the media, but backbenchers and Ministers too.”