'STOP THE TAX SO I CAN BE A FARMER LIKE MY MUMMY AND DADDY!'

A BOY aged five yesterday appealed to Rachel Reeves to "stop the tax" so he can become a farmer like his parents when he grows up.

- Steph Spyro

Bert Church protested with his mother Hazel and father Tom, both 44, in London yesterday, joining thousands of other farmers demonstrating against the Chancellor's Budget changes.

The youngster, who wants to raise pigs and chickens when he is older, said that Ms Reeves's inheritance tax raid made him "sad".

He repeatedly declared "Stop the tax!" beside hundreds of placard-clad tractors pulled up outside Downing Street on Whitehall.

Bert, below, from Bedford, said: "We don't want the family farm tax because then we're raising money and we've got less.

"I won't be able to be a farmer like my mummy and daddy." Tom, Hazel and her father own a farm in a partnership and may end up facing a tax bill of hundreds of thousands of pounds because of the Budget's changes.

Hazel said: "The family farm tax is a real worry. We're a small family farm, only 200 acres, but we know the inheritance tax and the relief will affect us. Our bill could be about £400,000 which is a lot of money to have to borrow."

The couple told how they would have to sell two fields to afford the bill, slashing the size of their holding to 120 acres.

They claim that the smaller setup would "not be viable".