'No one wants to talk about the realities of farming until they can't put food on the table and that's where Labour is taking us'

The costs are sky high and we're only able to keep it going because we have a wholesale butcher's on the side.”

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Since acquiring the slaughterhouse, Mr Smith has had to more than double its output and works with farmers across the whole of the South East and beyond.

Some travel for hours to drop their sheep, cattle and pigs at the facility.

The closure rate of 10% a year for small abattoirs has worsened the struggles faced by smallholder farmers, who are reeling from the Government's introduction of a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural assets over £1million, coming into force next April.

A record 6,365 farms have been forced to close in the past year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

More than half shut in the first six months of 2025 the highest number since quarterly data was first published in 2017.

Mr Griffith has criticised Labour’s changes. He said: “There is a huge shortage of abattoirs and, with the Government's attack on family farms and businesses, I'm not surprised they are worried about getting shafted again.

“No one wants to talk about the realities of farming until they can’t put food on the table and that’s where Labour is taking us.”

The Daily Express’s Save Britain’s Family Farms campaign has urged the Government to reverse the inheritance tax changes, warning that the policy could make it impossible for farming families to pass land on to the next generation. If the trend of small abattoir closures continues, they could be nearly extinct by the end of the decade, a Food Standards Agency report has warned.