The farmers' demonstration was best summed up in two images: real tractors being driven by farmers around Parliament Square, and beside them a collection of toy tractors being peddled around by their children.

On Tuesday morning, the first snow of winter was disrupted by the sound and sight of thousands of farmers who had descended on Westminster, along with their tractors, to protest against Labour’s inheritance tax raid.

AROUND 13,000 people descended on London last week in protest at the UK Government’s inheritance tax plans. There has been widespread condemnation in the agricultural industry to Chancellor, Rachel Reeves' announcement in the budget that farms worth more than £1 million will face an inheritance tax rate of 20 per cent.

Farms worth more than about $1.3 million will face an estate tax from 2026, ending a previous exemption and prompting anger in some rural communities.

Farmers don’t make up that much of the Labour vote – but that doesn’t mean the government can afford to be complacent about rural communities.

London, United Kingdom - 19, 2024 British farming communities held the demonstration in response to new inheritance tax regulations on agricultural land. This footage illustrates farmers riding in tractors through the streets of London during protest.