By Rob Harris
London: Jeremy Clarkson, who rose to international fame as a petrolhead, was once an unlikely champion of farming. Now he has become the sector’s most powerful advocate.
The former Top Gear host joined an estimated 15,000 British farmers on the streets of London on Tuesday in a bid to overturn the Labour government’s changes to inheritance tax rules that they warn will kill off family farms and threaten food security.
Children ride toy tractors in Parliament Square as demonstrators attend a farmers rally.Credit: Getty Images
On a morning when snow fell across the UK, and temperatures in the capital barely rose above 5 degrees, farmers – many arriving wearing tweed jackets in large coaches – joined a rally near Parliament Square, holding banners with slogans that read “no farmers, no food, no future” and “save family farms”, in a demonstration against what the sector has dubbed a “family farm tax”.
Under reforms to agricultural property and business property relief, announced in this month’s budget, farmers will be liable to pay a tax rate of 20 per cent on inherited agricultural and business assets with a value over £1 million ($1.9 million), which were previously exempt. The changes will apply from April 2026.
The National Farmers Union has warned the changes will force them to sell off land to pay for the duties, saddling the next generation with huge bills when margins are already dangerously thin. They have warned of possible strike action if needed.
Clarkson, who is enjoying fame as a landowner through hit Amazon Prime program Clarkson’s Farm, told the rally he was unsympathetic to farmers when he lived in London. But since he started farming himself, he has learned how “unbelievably difficult” it is.
He told the crowd, which also included English composer and impresario of musical theatre Andrew Lloyd Webber, that Labour had “cocked up” and should “back down”.
“You get people saying, ‘well, I shouldn’t pay that. I can get a chicken from abroad’. Yes, you can … it’s full of chlorine, it tastes like a swimming pool with a beak,” he said.
“I know a lot of people all across the country and all walks of life took a bit of a kick on the shin with that budget. You lot got a knee in the nuts and a hammer blow to the back of the head.”
The outspoken Clarkson has not been afraid to point out that farmers have been betrayed by Brexit, with their lost European Union subsidies replaced by “meaningless slogans”.
In addition to the subsidy cuts, poor weather and the pandemic resulted in challenges for farmers since the UK’s departure from the EU.
TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson joins farmers at a rally in London against the government’s changes to inheritance tax.Credit: Getty Images
The third season of Clarkson’s Farm, the documentary-comedy-reality series that follows his attempts to farm his 400-hectare “Diddly Squat” property in west Oxfordshire, is the most-watched program in the UK this year, with 10.1 million viewers.
“For the sake of everybody here and for all the farmers who are stuck at home today paralysed by a fog of despair over what has been foisted on them, I beg of the government to be big, to accept this was rushed through, it wasn’t thought out, and it is a mistake,” he said. “And back down.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has sought to reassure farmers that most of them will be unaffected by the reforms. The Treasury has published figures showing it estimates around 500 of the UK’s 200,000 farms will be impacted by the tax changes. The Country Land and Business Association disputes this, and says around 70,000 could be affected.
The government has said the tax increase aims to help restore the country’s public services and prevent wealthy landowners from non-farming backgrounds from exploiting the loophole.
Clarkson was asked about his comments in an interview in 2021 when he said that avoiding inheritance tax was behind his decision to buy land.
“That’s actually quite funny because the real reason I bought the farm was because I wanted to shoot, so I thought if I told a bunch of people that I bought a farm so I could shoot pheasants, it might look bad,” he said. “So I thought I better come up with another excuse, so I said inheritance tax. I actually didn’t know about inheritance tax until after I bought it.”
Starmer, in Brazil for the G20, told journalists he “gets” farmers’ concerns, but shook off suggestions Labour was “too urban”.
The UK government says “the vast majority” would be unaffected as he defended the controversial inheritance tax changes. Credit: Getty Images
Asked if he thought Clarkson was spreading misinformation, he said: “I’m not going to get into the business of commenting on what Clarkson says ... I am very confident in saying the vast majority will not be affected.”
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