Thousands of farmers travelled to London on November 19 to protest the new government’s first budget and its imposition of new inheritance tax rules. Nearly a month later, on December 12, there was another protest, this time with more tractors, fewer celebrities, and only a tiny fraction of the media coverage. Similar protests happened in Cardiff, Felixstowe, York, Exeter, Derbyshire and many other places.
Across Europe, radical rightwing and populist groups are targeting rural areas and farmer protests like these. While researching farmer protests in Wales earlier this year I found similar attempts to co-opt the movement. These attempts were largely rejected by the farmers, who instead adopted a “by farmers, for farmers” narrative.
But in the longer term, we can’t take it for granted that the UK’s protests will avoid being co-opted by the radical right, conspiracy theorists and climate change sceptics. If such groups in the UK can tap into farmer dissatisfaction, they could jeopardise plans for the country to reach net zero carbon emissions and broader moves towards sustainable farming.
