Thousands of British farmers have brought the streets around the UK's parliament to a standstill, protesting the government's plans for a controversial farm inheritance tax. Former top gear presenter-turned-farmer, Jeremy Clarkson, was among the crowd of protesters who dispute the government's claims that only the richest farmers would be forced to pay up.
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00:00Thousands of farmers from all over the UK and a convoy of tractors have descended on
00:08central London to protest against the UK government's inheritance tax on farms.
00:14Having previously been exempt from paying inheritance tax, farms which are worth more
00:19than a million pounds, the equivalent of about two million Australian dollars, will have
00:23to pay 20 per cent.
00:25Many farmers fear their families will have to leave the land.
00:28They say that will have an impact on the UK's food production.
00:32Two thirds of farms will be bankrupt by this tax and like Australians we should be self
00:40sufficient in food.
00:42We're quite capable of it, we just need a government to support us.
00:45Appreciate that they say that everyone gets the first million pounds but a lot of farms
00:49that asset value the land is above that and the problem with that is that farmers are
00:56a classic group of people that are asset rich, cash poor, they do not have the cash
01:00to pay.
01:01The number of farms affected by these tax changes differs depending on who you talk
01:05to.
01:06The government says only 500 of the wealthiest estates would be affected but farmers say
01:12up to 70,000 farms could be.
01:15I'm a generational farmer, I'm fourth now and that could be where it stops, we're not
01:21a rich cash farm but we've got plenty of assets so by the time you add the costs up
01:26we've reached our threshold but we're one of the smallest farms in our area and we're
01:31going to be affected by it.
01:32Among the protesters was former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson who's previously said he'd
01:37bought a farm to avoid inheritance tax but is now a vocal advocate for the farmers.
01:45This is the first mass protest against the UK's Labor government since it came to power
01:50in July after 14 years of conservative rule.
01:53The government says it needs the money to mop up mistakes made by the previous administration.
01:58We have to plug that 22 billion pound black hole in our public finances otherwise we can't
02:03fix our public services like the broken National Health Service so it's only right that we've
02:08had to ask the wealthiest landowners and the biggest farms to pay their fair share.
02:14It's been a peaceful protest here today, there's even been children here with toy tractors
02:19but the rally organisers say that things will escalate in the future if the government
02:24doesn't listen.