Going Gold 

The time of land-taxing Liberals has long gone. The Liberal Democrats are on the side of the farmers who gathered in Westminster last week to protest against the Government’s changes to Agricultural Property Relief in the Autumn Budget – mandating that estates valued at over £1m – previously exempt from inheritance tax – will face a levy of 20% from 2026. 

They have a right to be angry with the Labour Party. It was just a year ago that farmers were promised that APR would not increase, and now Keir Starmer has further alienated farmers who were always sceptic of Labour’s ability to capture rural votes. Axing the tax on British farming – to use Lib Dem lingo – , however, is far more important than a single policy issue. Ignoring the fact that farming and agriculture have been the backbone of this island for centuries (and, I hope, will continue to be), the farmers that gathered to exercise their right to protest – which we almost lost under the Conservative Government – have an important choice to make. 

It’s clear that Agricultural Property Relief and inheritance tax will be to the Labour what tuition fees were to the Liberal Democrats – who are now beginning to win back the trust of students and young people. At Prime Ministers Questions last week the champion for St Albans, Daisy Cooper, summarised this choice brilliantly: “they [farmers] feel like they were betrayed by the Conservatives, and lied to by Labour”. Farmers will find that they are facing a choice between Reform UK and the likes of Farage and Anderson, or Liberal Democrats with champions like Daisy Cooper in their ranks. 

For many, this will seem obvious, and I think many of my readers know where I stand when it comes to the splurge of the far right and Reform UK. However, the Guardian highlights the very real danger that the far right will move into the gap created when communities feel ignored or far too distant from mainstream politics. 

Leaders of Reform, including close associates of Tommy Robinson, have already jumped on the bandwagon (or, Tractor?) at the Farmers’ protest on Tuesday, joined by Jeremy Clarkson and his poor choice of words in describing the changes to APR as a “sinister plan” to “ethnically cleanse” farming communities. Nick Griffin, former BNP leader, said that the tv presenter “nails it”. For a movement so rooted in ideas of nationalism and Britishness, it’s not hard to see how the plight of the British farming community appeals to the right-wing ringleaders as a political opportunity. This, however, will only undermine the farming community’s warranted anger at the Labour party’s decision to jeopardise family farms. 

A debate was held by the organisers of the event about whether to accept Farage’s offer to speak at the protest, at which fears were raised that he would make it about himself. Andrew Meredith, Editor of Farmers’ Weekly, quipped that the organisers were “exactly right” in seeking to uphold the industry’s reputation and making the protest a “positive event”. This is a sentiment that, if upheld, will take the farming community to new and greater heights, and that which will empower their voice in Westminster. 

The risk that the far right will crash the farmers’ protest against the Government’s changes to APR is also a risk that the protest will become toxic, and a medium for the far right gain electoral ground in rural areas. That 100 Labour MPs – most of them newly elected – represent constituencies with rural areas presents not only a threat to the Government and Starmer’s hopes for a second term, but a real danger that Reform UK will become a force to be reckoned with in the House of Commons. 

To avoid the far-right using their plight as political capital, farmers ought to go gold and embrace the outstretched hand of the Liberal Democrats. Which isn’t actually going to be that big of a step. In the general election earlier this year, the Liberal Democrats’ rise to the third largest party rested on their Westcountry success; securing seven out of the eleven seats in Somerset, and six out of thirteen across Devon. 

To empower their voices in the corridors of power, farmers must go gold and embrace the outstretched hand of the Liberal Democrats. 

Archie Rankin is a Fellow and Assistant Director of Global Cooperation at the Sixteenth Council