Farming protest: Yorkshire farmer says industry is prepared to strike over inheritance tax changes

Mr Wainwright, whose grandfather began farming with a few cows and delivered milk to the surrounding area, said: “We are talking about possibly striking. I hope it doesn’t come to that because that’s seriously going to impact the food chain.”

On the impact on his farm, he said: “We’ve got to possibly sell a 20 per cent share of the farmland to be able to cover the tax bill. For us it’s around £600,000 we are going to have to pay.

“It’s like I’m going to have to buy my own farm back.”

Liz Harrison, who owns a 4,000-acre malt barley, winter wheat and pea farm near Kilham, in the East Riding, said she would be forced to sell off large portions of land under the inheritance tax changes.

“People who produced food in our country are feeling guilty for being alive,” the 40-year-old said.

Ms Harrison accused Labour of lying: “In any other job you’d be sacked.

“Before the election Keir Starmer talked about how farming is different and how we have to protect it.

“He’s the first one to sell us down the river.

“They’ve tackled the wrong industry, the wrong community - this is so detrimental to the rural economy.”

But she said it would be “very difficult” to strike.  “I think we’re striking a fine balance - we’d need the public behind us,” Ms Harrison explained.

“In general, I think the public will trust a farmer and not Starmer.”

She added: “We have been here for generations producing great British food - through Covid, through Brexit, through the bombing of Russia on Ukraine when fertiliser prices shot up, we carried on.

"You guys still had food on your shelves, it’s this that’s going to break us - our own government.”

While Doug Lund, 60, who owns a 250-acre mixed arable and beef farm in Malton, said he “would be affected and we’re not really a big farm”.