“I’m here to tell our story,” says Alison Ratcliffe, as she sits down on a carpeted stairway among a flood of tweed jackets inside a NFU-hired conference centre in central London.
The 59-year-old farmer offers around a large packet of Revels as she patiently waits to speak to her newly-elected Labour MP at the mass lobby event.
She’s one of 1,600 NFU members to face around 160 MPs, from all parties, in a campaign to stop Labour’s policy for inheritance tax for some farms.
And she’s on a mission to push not only her own story to Forest of Dean MP Matt Bishop, but those of many others who have contacted ahead of the meeting.
“In our village, I’m aware of a farmer who has recently died after suffering a heart attack,” she says. “Running a farm is very stressful and APR [agricultural property relief] certainly hasn’t helped the issue.”
Mrs Ratcliffe also tells of an elderly farmer who spoke of ending his life to avoid his family picking up the 20 per cent inheritance tax fee before it’s set to be introduced in April 2026.
“He said it’d be the most profitable day on his farm of his life,” she adds.
As for herself, Mrs Ratcliffe – who runs a 300-acre beef farm with her husband Ian – says her three daughters would need to stump up around £100k for the inheritance levy.
The Tesco-supplying farm makes around £20k a year, she says, and the bank overdraft has just had to be extended by £40k over cashflow issues.
This is her first chance to raise the issue with Mr Bishop, one of several new Labour MPs to dislodge long-serving Tory MPs at July’s landslide election.
None have so far broken party rank to support the NFU’s call for a reversal of the inheritance tax decision.
“I’m so incensed that the government could do this to us,” says Mrs Ratcliffe, who also works as a full-time primary school teaching assistant.
“I see us as custodians of the countryside for 45 years who will then pass it on to the next generation for the land to be looked after – but now we’re told our children will need to find a huge amount of money just to take this on.
“It’s a huge kick in the teeth.”
Mrs Ratcliffe’s story is typical of the hundreds of farmers who have travelled from across the country to lobby their MP, or join in the huge protest in Westminster.
Waking up at 3.15am at her farm near Gloucester, she made a 40-mile journey to Cirencester to catch an NFU-organised coach departing at 5.30am.
As rain came down heavily in the darkness of the town’s former railway station’s car park, the farmers trudged onboard before receiving an early-morning rallying call.
“This is the day of all days,” said NFU official Chris Farr, whose first seven weeks as the union’s county advisor for Gloucestershire have been turbulent.
“There has been a massive level of concern, anger and disappointment,” he says. “Farmers feel betrayed which is why it’s so important they get the chance to speak to their MPs today to help them understand the impact.”
It’s a four-hour long journey from the Cotwolds to London, but the farmers, many old friends, take the opportunity to talk everything from concerns over the rising price of animal feed to disappointment at the fake Christmas tree at the National Arboretum at Westonbirt.
Between conversations, NFU officials brief them ahead of the meetings with MPs, before arrival at Tothill Street and a short walk to Church House where, due to late arrival, they miss most of the first briefing of the day by NFU president Tom Bradshaw.
Channelling back out of the building, the farmers are led away to nearby venues like Portcullis House, opposite Westminster Hall, where they face long queues outside before meeting their MPs face-to-face.
Later, as a line of children on toy tractors lead the wider protest of around 10,000 people toward Parliament Square, some begin to funnel out.
Fourth generation farmer Charles Day, from Winchcombe, was among a group of five farmers from the coach who met newly-elected Lib Dem MP for Tewkesbury Cameron Thomas.
“I think it went well,” the 35-year-old said. “We sat down and explained to him about the farming business and how the change in inheritance tax will impact so many family farms.
“He listened and asked the right questions – whether he can make a difference, not being a Labour MP, we will have to see.”
Also in the group were 75-year-old Peter Davidson-Smith, and his son Thomas, aged 46. The pair hold a 420-acre farm thought to be worth £7m, which they think could result in a £1m inheritance bill.
With the farm making just £10k profit each year, Thomas says: “You want to take on the farm, but if you need to sell some of the land to raise the tax, would it still be viable to run?”
David Kelly, 59, who has an 800-acre farm in Cumbria, also comes out of Portcullis House having seen his Labour MP for Morecombe and Lunesdale, Lizzie Collinge.
“She seemed sympathetic,” he says, “It went better than I expected, but then will she do anything? I think Labour MPs should be free to say what they want, free from the party whip. That’d make the difference for us all.”
As the rain pours down, the wider protest begins to fade away with many NFU members taking part choosing to head back to Church House, where free tea and coffee, along with hot sausage rolls are laid out.
Among them is cattle farmer John Collins, from Saddleworth in Greater Manchester, who is waiting to see his Labour MP Debbie Abrahams.
Sat next to his 21-year-old daughter Phoebe, who has just finished an agricultural degree, he says: “We’re fuming, and I suppose happy we can make out points to the MP, but I doubt it’ll make a blind bit of difference.
“They’ve [Labour] have thrown us under with this one. It’s hard enough to survive, let alone raise enough money to pay for inheritance. £400k she’d need [Phoebe], yet since my father died in 2003 we’ve made profit just five or six years.”
As for Mrs Ratcliffe, after meeting her MP Mr Bishop, she says it went well as she gets back on the NFU bus set for departure back to Cirencester.
She says: “It is hard getting a day off the farm and from school, but hopefully it’s a day well spent.
“But this battle isn’t won yet.”
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
