‘Final nail in the coffin!’ Kent farmers issue 'heartbreaking' plea to Reeves over ‘disastrous’ inheritance tax raid

With her four children interested in the agricultural industry, Kate said that her older children - 18 and 21 - were now contemplating their future on Park Leigh Farm, near Tonbridge, if Reeves’ inheritance tax leaves them "saddled with a huge debt for the rest of their lives".

Speaking to GB News about the mass demonstration, Bastable explained: "A lot of very angry people were there all just thinking of passing the farm onto their children, and the investment that they and their generations before them had made into the farm.

Three generations of Bastables are currently working on Park Leigh Farm near Tonbridge in Kent - and have done so for over a century

Kate Bastable

The Bastable family has invested time - along with huge sums of money - to make their farm a "viable unit" to hand down to their children

Kate Bastable

Although the family has spent over a century on the land, the Bastables purchased the farm just eight years ago, taking out a hefty mortgage to do so and borrowing money to invest in farm equipment to develop it into a "good viable unit for [their] children to take on".

Despite the Government claiming that the tax would only impact a handful of farmers across Britain, tenant farmer Ben Townsend said that the levy would have knock-on effects, regardless of individuals’ land ownership.

"Farmers are the backbone of Britain’s economy and, without them, no other business can grow because everyone needs to survive and eat," he told GB News.

Townsend added: "There’s a lot more to it. The inheritance tax was a nail in the coffin."

Ben Townsend went to Whitehall to support the industry

PA/Ben Townsend

Townsend and the Bastable family represented the Kentish farming community in Whitehall on Tuesday, where they encountered people who had travelled from as far as Northern Ireland.

When asked about whether the farming community was worried when Sir Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, the tenant farmer said: "[Labour] never favoured the agricultural industry. As a whole, things were going to be set against us."

Bastable said that she "doubts" the Government will respond, explaining that Reeves "seems as though she’s made a mistake" and "she realises what she’s done but she’s just not brave enough to face the music".

Throwing the next move to Labour, the fourth-generation farmer declared: "The ball’s in their court now."

Crowned the Garden of England by Henry VIII, Kent is home to the majority of farms across the South East, with an estimated 2,700 farms across the county alone.

In 2023, Kent County Council highlighted that farming businesses - whether arable or animal - accounted for almost 90 per cent of food and drink production in Kent.