Food supply plan in place if farmers strike, says minister

A senior minister has revealed that plans are being put in place to deal with food shortages if farmers go ahead with their threat to strike over the controversial family farm tax.

- DAVID MADDOX

In an interview with Sir Trevor Phillips on his Sunday morning show on Sky News, transport secretary Louise Haigh said the government would be “setting out” its contingency plans for the winter, as concerns mount over the furious backlash to a decision to apply inheritance tax to farms.

Farmers are set to descend on London in their thousands tomorrow to protest against plans to impose a 20 per cent inheritance tax on farms worth £1m or more. They have warned that the policy will destroy family farms across the country or see them broken up.

But more worrying for the government are the plans by farmers to go on strike and stop food production to give ministers a taste of what it would be like if the UK food-producing sector were no longer operating. The threat has raised concerns about empty supermarket shelves this winter and potential panic-buying, which was last seen at the start of the Covid pandemic when people began to stockpile food at home.

Sir Trevor asked Ms Haigh: “Can you assure us the government has contingency plans in place to make sure that we don’t have food shortages if the farmers carry out their threats to ratchet up action?” She replied: “Of course Defra will be setting out plans for the winter, and, business as usual, will be setting out contingency plans ensuring that food security is treated as the priority it deserves.”