Our collective task on 19 November, although substantial, is straightforward.
Farmer and grower members of the NFU are coming to London to meet with their MPs to bring to life the impacts of this policy change on their farms, on British farming and on food supply, and to urge them to ask the Chancellor to reconsider these measures.
- A must-read for members attending the NFU's mass lobby event – Timings and logistics.
Update: 11 November
There is now a second complementary event in London on 19 November, which is organised by a group of farmers. We support members and farmers if they wish to attend this rally but the NFU is not responsible for organising it.
We continue to urge members to get in front of their MP, look them in the eyes and tell them from the heart how the changes to the APR will affect farming and growing businesses.
“Please don't miss the opportunity to engage with your MP, because they are the ones that ultimately have to get the government to take a different stance on this. You can do both events. We're working in a coordinated fashion and I really look forward to seeing you on the 19 November.”
NFU President Tom Bradshaw
We will continue to update Preparing for the day with the latest logistical news.
Since the Autumn Budget was announced, the NFU has been working flat-out to make the case to Treasury and wider government that the decision it has made to change Agriculture Property Relief and Business Property Relief must be over-turned, and to corral public and media support for farmers.
We believe the Treasury has built this policy on the wrong data and the changes it proposes will not deliver what it wants to achieve. It will not protect family farms, it will destroy them.
The shock and anger among members has been acute. And it’s been heard.
Within just four days of being launched, our campaign to Stop the Family Farm tax has secured the support of more than 160,000 people, and millions more are expressing their concern across social media.
The family farm tax must be overturned.
Show your support and call for the government to overturn the family farm tax.
In the media there have been more than 2,500 stories across national and regional press.
Broadcasters have carried the story strongly.
Behind the scenes, we’ve represented members’ shock, anger and fear to ministers, along with the evidence of why this policy doesn’t work. Be in no doubt that ministers and MPs know how furious and betrayed people feel.
How we got here
In the days before the budget we began to hear APR might be on the agenda, despite clear promises that it wouldn’t be. The NFU responded at speed, with members writing more than 3,600 letters to MPs, a social media campaign landing well and our case being laid before the Chancellor and the Prime Minister.
We also had to quickly plan for the worst. We began building plans for a mass lobby for 19 November, bringing members to London for meetings with their MPs, so that the government would be pressured by its own back benchers, and NFU Council agreed this was the way forward in an emergency meeting the morning after the Budget.
Through this first event post-Budget it’s vital that we leave MPs in no doubt that their constituents, their voters, won’t accept this and will hold them responsible. There must be a political price to pay for this decision. This mass lobby is about landing that message as we work to have this decision reversed.
Get involved
The mass lobby is taking place on 19 November at Church House Westminster. All members will have received an email since 31 October inviting those wishing to attend to register their interest.
Demand for this event has been amazing, with 1,800 NFU members registering their intention to come.
We’ve tripled our capacity in Church House from the original 600 (which is what the venue holds) to 1,800, via three rotations of 600, to ensure we can accommodate as many members as possible to the mass lobby – but we can’t make it any larger. But far more than 1,800 NFU members want their voice to be heard, and rightly. The level of anger in the industry may never have been so high.
If members haven't registered already, we're asking that they don't do so now.
While our mass lobby event is at capacity, we want this to be the first event, not the only event, where you can be heard.
Can I attend if I haven't registered?
If you’re not registered on the event, please don’t travel to London. There’s another opportunity to make clear how you feel.
There are legal issues which mean we can’t simply turn up in numbers in Westminster on the streets, or the open spaces. We cannot risk either member or public safety, or the loss of public support, that could come from what could be an illegal demonstration.
Preparing for the day
To get the most out of the day, it’s really important to get a meeting with your MP.
A must-read for members attending the NFU's mass lobby event – Timings and logistics.
If you have received an invitation to attend the mass lobby, you can use our campaigns tool to request a meeting with your MP to ask them for their support.
NFU members: Please send details of your MP meeting to your regional office before 19 November.
- Midlands regional office: 02476 939402/ [email protected]
- East regional office: 02476 939403/ [email protected]
- South regional office: 02476 939404/ [email protected]
- North regional office: 02476 939401/ [email protected]
- NFU Cymru: 0370 845 8458/ [email protected]
We will continue to update this page with details on logistics for the day.
Next steps
We’ve always said this event was just the start of this fight. If the government listens to us, before or after 19 November, we’ll all be relieved, but if it doesn’t, this event will be followed by another, at which farmers and growers will demonstrate how we feel about this devastating policy.
If we need it, that will be our show of mass unity and strength.
If government continues to refuse to listen, this will be step two.
Ministers need to understand that we won’t get tired, that we won’t go away, that this campaign will go on for as long as this terrible decision stands.
If they think we’ll give up, it just shows how much they don’t understand farmers.
Our message to you
The message to you is threefold.
First, thank you. Thank you for your passion, your support for your fellow farmers.
Second, if you’re not registered for the mass lobby, please don’t think you have lost your chance to have your voice heard. If we don’t get the Family Farm Tax scrapped before it, we need you to be ready to march. That is our moment to rally.
Between now and then you can really help by asking to meet your own MP and telling them what the IHT policy means for you, your family, your farm and your future. We must keep the pressure up.
And finally, we hope every day that the government does the right thing, but our message to them is we’re in the long fight. This tax cannot stand; for your sake, for your family’s sake, for farming’s sake and for Britain’s sake.
What is a mass lobby?
A mass lobby is when a large number of people, typically members of a large national organisation like the NFU, contact their MPs and members of the Lords in advance and arrange to meet with them at Parliament all on the same day to deploy the same set of messages.
Before you go to the meeting make sure that you’ve had a briefing from the NFU, to ensure that the MPs from Cornwall to Cumbria get the same messages from their farmer and grower constituents.
Mass lobbies have been used by the NFU throughout its 116-year history, especially where large numbers of our members are seeking change or campaigning against a policy which will damage their businesses or the nation’s food supply.
Mass lobbies are clearly targeted at parliamentarians who we are asking to influence decision makers, in this case the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The mass lobby on 19 November will highlight the poorly thought-through changes to IHT (Inheritance Tax) and follows a similar pattern to those we have run previously, with a large in-person briefing followed by parliamentary meetings.
NFU signs letter calling for full consultation on IHT changes
The NFU is one of 32 trade associations that have joined forces through an open letter to the Chancellor, calling for a full and formal consultation on the proposed changes to inheritance tax.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “No one thinks this is a good policy, not even the government’s own advisers. It’s time for Treasury to listen to farmers and the multiple other organisations calling for these proposals to be opened up for consultation.”
Photograph: Alex MacNaughton / Alamy
NFU President sends #StopTheFamilyFarmTax Christmas cards to MPs
NFU President Tom Bradshaw sends Christmas cards to all English and Welsh MPs calling on them to #StopTheFamilyFarmTax.
The image on the Christmas card depicts a row of empty wellies belonging to a farming family.
Photograph: Getty
NFU President writes to the Prime Minister and meets with the Defra Secretary of State
NFU President Tom Bradshaw writes to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on farmers' concerns regarding the impacts of proposed changes to APR and BPR.
Tom also meets with the Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed to discuss the effects of wider government policy on British farmers and growers.
NFU tells government crucial covenant feels broken
NFU President Tom Bradshaw gives evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee on the impacts of proposed changes to APR and BPR on the farming sector and wider rural communities.
Summarising the historic and current relationship between farming and the government, Tom says: “Ever since World War II, there has been a covenant between farming and government – that farming gets on and does its job of producing food, and it’s never really been about the returns, it’s been about that way of life, that heritage, that custodianship.
“Unfortunately with all the other changes in the Budget, along with this one, it feels like this covenant has been broken.”
Read NFU external affairs adviser Neeve McGinty's report.
Photograph: Parliament tv
NFU announces next steps for campaign to stop the family farm tax
NFU Council meets to agree a plan to take us through the Christmas period and January, as we start to approach the Finance Bill, the piece of legislation that would make the Chancellor’s tax raid on farms law.
- A new email your MP tool for members launches to keep the pressure on MPs. We want to combine this with targeted meetings where MPs meet farmers together with their accountants to really understand why the Treasury’s insistence that few people will be affected is wrong.
- We're also asking members to get involved in a huge banner campaign, using roadside banners, gate banners and car stickers, right across the whole UK.
- We're building towards a milestone event at Lamma in January, which there’ll be more information on soon.
Family farm tax debated in parliament
The Conservative Party uses its Opposition Day to table a motion against the government's proposed changes to APR.
Read NFU external affairs manager Emma Crosby's report.
Photograph: BBC
NFU holds banking roundtable
At its bi-annual banking roundtable, the NFU holds crucial discussions with several major banks to assess the potential impact of the government's recent Budget on farm business confidence and investment.
NFU President meets with Prime Minister
NFU President Tom Bradshaw meets Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a one-on-one meeting to hear directly from Tom about farmers’ concerns.
They discuss the impact of changes to inheritance taxes on farms, alongside a number of other topics including food security, trade and farming and growing in the UK more widely.
Family farm tax most unpopular measure in Autumn Budget, new polling finds
New polling, carried out by Portland this week, shows that changes to inheritance taxation on family farms are unpopular, and that perceptions that Labour does not value rural voters as highly as urban ones are building.
Inheritance tax on farms is revealed to be the joint most unpopular measure in the Budget, tied with changes to pensions.
The news comes as the NFU's campaign action to stop the family farm tax gains more than 255,000 signatures.
NFU organises a mass lobby to stop the family farm tax
Farmers and growers descend on London to meet with their MPs as part of the NFU’s call to action to reverse the family farm tax. NFU President Tom Bradshaw opens the mass lobby with an impassioned speech in Church House, Westminster with the presidents of the other UK farming unions on stage. Members then went to tell their story to their MPs.
Support for the call to action quickly rises with over 231,000 members of the public joining the call to overturn the family farm tax.
NFU meets with Defra and Treasury to discuss Inheritance Tax
NFU President Tom Bradshaw meets Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed and Treasury Minister James Murray to outline the impact of Inheritance Tax changes on family farms and national food security.
Public backs NFU campaign to overturn family farm tax
On 1 November, the NFU launches the campaign urging the government to think again following its Autumn Budget announcement.
NFU members, British farmers and the public joined forces to call on the government to reverse its decision on the APR (Agricultural Property Relief), with more than 120,000 people adding their names to the campaign action to stop the family farm tax.
NFU leads calls for family farm tax to be reversed
Britain’s farmers and growers will take part in a mass lobby of their MPs on 19 November to highlight the devastating impact of the recent budget on their farms, with changes to Agricultural Property Relief dealing a hammer blow to farming families.
Show your support and call for the government to overturn the family farm tax.
Photograph: Mike Booth / Alamy
Budget blow for British farming, says NFU
The NFU responds to Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Autumn Budget announcement, warning that new measures could lead to food price rises.
New measures include changes to APR (Agricultural Property Relief) that are likely to impact significant numbers of farm estates, including small and medium-sized enterprises, and an above-inflation hike in the NLW (National Living Wage), with the rate for over 21s increasing 6.7% to £12.21 from April.
Farming industry writes to Chancellor amid fears of inheritance tax relief changes
The UK farming industry comes together to warn the Chancellor about the crippling effect changes to inheritance tax reliefs, including APR and BPR, would have on family farms, tenant farmers, domestic food security and environmental delivery.
Photograph: Alex MacNaughton / Alamy
APR changes would put family farms at risk, warns NFU
Reports that the Treasury is considering major changes to agricultural property relief as part of the forthcoming budget spark concern among farmers and growers.
NFU analysis of APR suggests that scrapping it would only save the Treasury £120 million per year, while the negative impact on farming would be much larger.
The NFU secures a debate in parliament this on the issue.
7 key Autumn Budget asks – NFU writes to the Chancellor
The NFU writes to the Chancellor outlining the key asks for farming – chief among them is the need for a multi-year agriculture budget of £5.6 billion.
We are also seeking confirmation that there will be no changes to APR (Agricultural Property Relief) which currently exempts farmland from inheritance tax.
The NFU believes that any removal of APR is unlikely to raise much in the way of tax, but could lead to a contraction in the amount of rental land for farmers.
Photograph: amanda rose / Alamy
Parliament debates the agriculture budget
Following NFU lobbying, MPs from across the House of Commons call on the government to deliver an increased agriculture budget after an opposition debate day raises the importance of farming to Britain’s food security, environment and economic growth.
NFU launches 'write to your MP' campaign action
NFU President Tom Bradshaw brands newly released Defra figures as “unacceptable”, after they showed a £130 million yearly underspend against plans between April 2023 and March 2024.
The NFU had repeatedly shared its concerns about this issue.
On Back British Farming Day, the NFU calls for the government to deliver a renewed and enhanced multi-annual agriculture budget of £5.6 billion in the Autumn Budget on 30 October.
The NFU hosts a fringe event at the Labour Party Conference with Food Security and Rural Affairs Minister Daniel Zeichner on the panel. We reiterate our call for an increased budget.
Defra Secretary commits to making farming's case to Treasury
At the NFU's Back British Farming Day parliamentary reception, Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed pledges to make farming’s case to the Treasury.
‘Food security is our shared mission’, Farming Minister tells NFU MP reception
NFU holds first parliamentary reception after the State Opening of the new parliament. NFU President Tom Bradshaw pushes Minister Daniel Zeichner on the budget.
NFU has first meeting with new Defra Secretary
NFU President Tom Bradshaw meets new Defra Secretary Steve Reed.
After the meeting Tom says: “Steve Reed has just outlined his plan for change and it’s good to hear that food security, the environment and flood management are all focus areas. These now need to be underpinned by a budget that will enable the necessary investment.”
NFU meets with parliamentary candidates
In the run up to the election the NFU meets with almost 400 candidates, ensuring our message on the budget is heard.
General election announced
The government announces a general election to take place on 4 July. The NFU continues to make the case for an agriculture budget that delivers for British farming and growing.
No. 10 hosts second Farm to Fork Summit
The NFU has secured major wins and explored ways to restore farmers’ confidence at the second Farm to Fork summit.
The summit coincides with several announcements which represent major wins for the NFU.
NFU launches its general election manifesto
The NFU launches its Farming for Britain’s Future key policy asks ahead of an anticipated general election. These asks contain research from The Andersons Centre that explains why a robust agriculture budget must deliver for the stability and productivity of farming alongside the environment.
