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Britain’s farmers are facing what campaigner Liz Webster calls an “absolute evil” – a policy she warns could obliterate family farms, erode food security, and strip the public of cherished rural traditions like rambling footpaths. Ms Webster, founder of Save British Farming, described Labour’s inheritance tax reforms as a “land grab” of family farms to benefit global corporations.

The policy will end 100% agricultural property relief for estates over £1 million from April 2026, imposing up to 40% tax on transfers and potentially forcing sales to larger operators. She told Express.co.uk: “I’ve got friends and family with elderly relatives who are feeling as if they’re a burden, and they are contemplating the unthinkable before this tax comes in, and it is absolutely evil.”

She referenced a recent Countryfile episode on Welsh farmer Rees Davies, who discussed suicidal thoughts amid mounting debts, saying such stories reflect experiences across the country where elderly farmers feel pressured to sell.

Ms Webster claimed the reforms amount to a “betrayal on steroids” that undermines the role of farms in Britain’s food supply since the World War 2.

Farms produce most of the food on supermarket shelves despite low margins and pressure from retailers, she pointed out. The tax is expected to generate £500 million over 10 years, a figure she contrasted with the £500 million annual subsidies for Drax Power’s biomass imports from North America.

She said the policy aligns with calls for food industrialisation by figures like Maurice Glasman, despite Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge at the NFU conference to protect family farms.

Ms Webster said: “We’ve been the backbone of the British countryside and British food security, particularly since the last war; everything has been built on that.

“In fact, the whole European project was built on food and the need for food security, and we’re just being thrown under the bus by this government.”

The changes would affect all Britons by shifting control to corporations, similar to privatised sectors like water, where ownership by entities including the Chinese Communist Party limits public influence, Ms Webster argued.

She feared that this would lead to more imported food containing chemicals and be linked to practices such as animal intensification and deforestation.

Ms Webster continued: “What we always try to do, from Save British Farming, is explain to people what it means for your food, because you are what you eat.”

She noted Britain’s climate supports grass-fed livestock without the need for feedlots used elsewhere, but added that corporate dominance would increase reliance on such methods.

Polls show 90% of people want high-standard food, but financial pressures lead to cheaper options, with consequent strains on the NHS, she said.

Ms Webster added: “People in urban areas don’t understand the connection between the countryside and food and what that means for them. They go to the supermarket, see a packet, and don’t think about where that food comes from.”

Ms Webster also voiced concerns about the loss of public access to the countryside. She said overseas visitors from places like Australia and America express gratitude for being able to walk through working farms in Britain.

She explained: “If global corporations run all of our farms, you can forget your footpaths.” She added: “You can forget all of that way of life, because in America, they don’t have that… You’re not allowed to walk on farms in Australia, the same; in New Zealand, the same.”

Ms Webster called for a “real listening exercise” by the government, noting that policies without public support fail, even in autocracies.

The Netherlands’ approach proved that large-scale food output is possible with government investment, she said. Rural towns like Cirencester, close to her cattle farm, relied on farming-related businesses such as agronomists and seed suppliers, which are struggling without support.

Ms Webster said history could view the reforms as “one of the worst assaults on the entire country”, emphasising that most food currently comes from British farms and urged awareness of the links between agriculture and daily life.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have defended the inheritance tax changes as a necessary step to ensure fairness in the tax system, closing loopholes exploited by wealthy landowners while protecting genuine family farms.

At the NFU conference in February 2025, Sir Keir reiterated his commitment to British agriculture, stating: “We will back farmers to grow the economy and protect our food security.”

Ms Reeves, in a November 2025 Treasury statement amid growing protests, confirmed that the policy would proceed from April 2026, emphasising that it targets estates over £1 million and would raise funds for public services without unduly burdening working farms, although she acknowledged the sector’s vital role in rural economies.