Farmers have threatened to blockade ports and disrupt food supply in protest against Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget inheritance tax changes.
One farmer told the Telegraph that plans were being considered to withhold produce and livestock to trigger food shortages.
“[This] could be a possibility to slow down the supply in the supermarket,” they said.
“The Government and supermarkets need to realise the control we have as farmers. The good thing with that is you have farmers everywhere so you can cover all the ports.”
Last month Ms Reeves announced that a new inheritance tax of 50 per cent, at an effective rate of 20 per cent, would be levied on farms worth over £1 million.
Downing Street insists that farmers still benefit from a “generous” tax regime.
The National Farmers’ Union has planned a “mass lobby” event on November 19 for its members to petition MPs to overturn changes in the Budget to agricultural property relief and business property relief.
The proposed event will see 1,800 NFU members, in three rotations of 600, lobby parliamentarians at Church House Westminster.
The NFU said there were “legal issues” preventing members turning up in large numbers on the streets of Westminster.
The Metropolitan Police said it had not banned anyone from marching on November 19, adding that the NFU had emphasised its event “will not be a protest”.
Clive Bailye, founder of The Farming Forum, said he was “totally in support” of the NFU’s event but added it was “very limited”.
Mr Bailye, an arable farmer from Staffordshire, said: “They weren’t organising a rally. They weren’t organising a march-type event.
“It was becoming very obvious that farmers were desperate for somebody to take the lead and organise something else.”
He said that tractor go-slows and a strike on spreading sewage sludge on their land are also being considered by “hardcore groups”.
