Desperate farmers pushed to the edge by 'death tax'

CALLS FOR GOVERNMENT U-TURN

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means inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1million will be liable for a 20% tax charge. The Express has launched the Save Britain's Family Farms crusade in protest at the punitive policy.

"The countryside just feels an enormous sense of betrayal by this Government," Ms Atkins said.

Gareth Wyn Jones whose family has farmed for more than three centuries in North Wales described the plight of farmers as "devastating".

He warned: "I have never ever been in a situation where we have had so many people in dire straits.

"We're on our knees and there's this constant barrage of red tape and more taxes, more problems."

Speaking of the farming community's anguish, he said: "I think we're on the tip of a massive, massive iceberg and we are going to see a lot more losses within the industry, which is heartbreaking. I'm thinking 'How have we come to this situation?'."

Mr Jones fears the inheritance tax charge will force farmers to put up prices.

"Who's going to suffer?" he said. "It's going to be the poorer people in society who aren't going to be able to afford the healthy, good food the British farmer has been producing for years."

Ben Aveling, a farmer from Northamptonshire, said it felt as if there had been a succession of "attacks" on farming.