The angry voice of the farmers will not go away - Stuart Minting

The level of worrying over the impending threat of inheritance tax reform has been played out across the country, with farmers making their anger felt on the streets of Westminster on numerous occasions - the latest being a protest on Pancake Day which saw the numbers of tractors allowed on to the street of London restricted to prevent major disruption to business in the capital.

This week the focus has shifted to Wales Parliament’s Welsh Affairs select committee which launched its own inquiry into the challenges and opportunities for farming in the country on Monday.

The cross-party committee has been examining what support the Welsh farming sector requires from the UK Government, and what support is currently being provided, with the impact of the proposed inheritance tax reforms being scrutinised.

It will be interesting to see what the MPs there find.

Earlier this year the EFRA (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) select committee chairman, Alistair Carmichael wrote to the Prime Minister backing the NFU's call to pause and consult on the changes.

In the letter, Mr Carmichael asked for the Prime Minister to meet with him urgently to discuss potential mitigations to the changes as well as the “deep concern” fuelling “low confidence and morale levels in the agricultural and wider rural community”.

As yet, that meeting appears not to have happened.

Indeed Keir Starmer has insisted on several occasions that there will be no U-turn on inheritance tax reforms, backing his Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ stance that the changes will no be as hardfelt as the farmers claim.

However, if the Prime Minister and Chancellor think farmers are going to go away any time soon, they are sadly mistaken.

As a population, these are people used to getting on with it in all weathers, irrespective of weekends and bank holidays, and while the image of the curmudgeonly farmer is one which resonates, most men and women who work the land have a sharp sense of humour and a dry wit that comes from years of observing people and animals while saying very little about the work it entails.

They are not easily roused, that is until now.

It will interesting to see if the Government continues to think that it can ignore the farmers, to do would be at its own peril.