Thousands of farmers head to London for inheritance tax protest - live updates

Thousands of farmers from across Wales and others parts of the UK are heading to London today for a huge protest. They are calling on the Government to scrap its changes to agricultural inheritance tax that were announced in last month's Budget.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) is holding a mass lobby of MPs with 1,800 of its members - three times as many people as originally planned - to urge backbenchers to stand up to the Government's plans to impose inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million.

Celebrities including Jeremy Clarkson - who told the Times in 2021 that avoiding inheritance tax was "the critical thing" in his decision to buy land - will join the rally.

And thousands more are expected to join a separate rally in Whitehall as they protest against the Budget, which also sped up the phase out of EU-era subsidies as funding is switched to nature-friendly farming schemes. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter

Farmers have reacted with anger and dismay to the inheritance tax changes for farming businesses, which limit the existing 100% relief for farms to only the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property.

For anything above that, landowners will pay a 20% tax rate, rather than the standard 40% rate of inheritance tax (IHT) applied to other land and property.

In a speech to NFU members as they come to London to lobby MPs on the issue, the organisation's president Tom Bradshaw is expected to tell them that the "betrayal" on the tax changes is extraordinary.

He will warn that farms producing the country's food will need to be broken up and sold as a result of the policy, "because farmers simply won't have the money to pay this tax any other way". For