Farmers blockade one of Britain's busiest ports overnight

Furious farmers have blockaded one of Britain's busiest ferry ports with tractors in an overnight protest against Government inheritance tax plans.

They held up lorries at Holyhead in Anglesey as anger mounts and tensions reach boiling point following Labour's proposals.

High-profile Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones claimed: 'Even lorry drivers stuck in queue at port are supporting the farmers.'

On social media he warned: 'Don't p*** off the farmers. We need both Governments in Westminster and Senedd to listen.'

Mr Wyn Jones said it was a peaceful demonstration. He added: 'Governments in all our different nations are asking farmers to do more for less and it's virtually impossible. 

'You can't keep pushing us down. It's death from a thousand cuts.'

It comes after farmers warned the landmark London march was 'just the warm-up act' and vowed to continue protesting until their voices were heard. 

On Wednesday more than 100 tractors rumbled through Dover in another rally opposing Keir Starmer's inheritance tax grab.

Farmers from across Kent and Sussex joined the demonstration calling on the government to reverse its plans impose a 20% inheritance tax (IHT) on farm assets worth £1 million or more from April 2026.

The government has insisted that the majority of farms would be unaffected by the changes and up to £3million can be passed on by two people free of inheritance tax. 

But the National Farmers Union has said many British farmers are under threat.

Farmers Weekly reported the protest today had been organised by Save British Farming (SBF) and the Farmers for Farmers of Kent groups.

Tractors were adorned with British flags and placards which read, 'No farmers. No food. No future,' 'Back British Farming and 'Protect UK food security'.

Both of the groups are angry about the government's 'abject failure' to deliver on its pre-manifesto promise to 'provide a fair deal for British farmers', Farmers Weekly reported.

One of the organisers is Matt Cullen, a beef farmer, based near Canterbury.

He told Farmers Weekly: 'It's time for farmers to stand up and fight back and it's time to show the government that things will escalate more if they don't sit down and talk to us.'

Video footage showed the tractors travelling around farmland and onto the A2 before ending up in the coastal town itself. They were spotted taking up two lanes of a main road in the go-slow protest.

Save British Farming accused Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer of 'betraying farmers' with their 'disastrous Budget' which they said delivered a 'poisonous cocktail and a hammer blow to farming,' The Telegraph reported.

It comes as thousands of irate farmers also descended on London earlier this month to voice their objections to the inheritance tax measures.

The braved sleet and chilly temperatures to partake in the rally outside the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall.

Among those addressing the crowds assembled from all corners of the UK were Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson and Labour peer Baroness Mallalieu.

Placards and banners included attacks on Chancellor Rachel Reeves ‘Rachel Thieves...and Lies on her CVs’, a picture of Keir Starmer as a pig labelled ‘Pig Ignorant’ and ‘You Reap What We Sow’.

Clive Bailye was one of the organisers of the demonstration, which ran alongside a separate rally of 1,800 farmers in Westminster orchestrated by the National Farmers’ Union.

The Staffordshire farmer said he and the other organisers of the event - Merseyside farmer Olly Harrison, Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones and Andrew Ward of Lincolnshire - were ‘waiting for the dust to settle’ before they decided their next move. 

Mr Bailye told the Daily Mail: ‘We can’t rule out anything. We’ve been focused on this event today and proved this is affecting more people than they [the government] think.

‘I hope there were politicians sitting in different parts of Whitehall thinking “What if they do organise more tractors on the streets?”

‘We are not anarchists, we are four farmers with day jobs, and we organised that in a week.

‘I don’t know what will happen next but I know that farmers will not give up until we get a better outcome that we are happy with.

‘We are not going to go quietly. This could just be the warm-up act for what could be organised if they don’t come to the table.

‘They need to know this is just a warm up act.’

Top Gear presenter turned farmer Jeremy Clarkson , 64, also attended the London march alongside his Clarkson's Farm co-stars Kaleb Cooper and Charlie Ireland - defying the advice of his doctor to 'avoid stress' while he recovers from a heart operation.

Mr Clarkson, who runs Diddly Squat farm in Chipping Norton, was holding a sign reading 'With our farmers'.