{"id":301931,"date":"2025-07-29T19:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T19:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/301931\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T19:00:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T19:00:13","slug":"how-reform-is-winning-over-britains-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/301931\/","title":{"rendered":"How Reform Is Winning Over Britain\u2019s Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK has established itself as the unofficial opposition to Labour, with some polls<\/a> showing it would win a majority if a general election was held this year. But while the party is making inroads across Britain, nowhere is this as stark as in the breadbasket of England \u2013 Lincolnshire in the East Midlands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second largest county in the UK, Lincolnshire boasts a varied landscape, with industrial northern towns like Scunthorpe, historic Lincoln\u2019s Roman roads and Norman castle, seaside resorts, marshy fenlands and vast patchworks of fields. It\u2019s also an agricultural powerhouse. Home to nearly 3,500 farm holdings, Lincolnshire produces 25% of Britain\u2019s vegetables<\/a>, 19% of sugar beets, 18% of duck and 11% of cereals. The county\u2019s total farmed area stood at 490,000 hectares<\/a> in 2022, and its food sector employs around 100,000 people.<\/p>\n

In the local elections in May, Reform wrested control<\/a> of Lincolnshire county council from the Tories. Greater Lincolnshire also elected its first metro mayor<\/a> \u2013 Boris Johnson loyalist and middle finger-raiser<\/a> Andrea Jenkyns for Reform. Lincolnshire, it seems, is fast becoming one of the party\u2019s heartlands. And as I discovered on a trip to the county for a new Novara Media documentary<\/a>, Reform\u2019s popularity among farmers is part of the reason why.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Henry Ward is an arable farmer on the east edge of Lincoln. A lifelong Tory voter, he said he\u2019d been willing to give Keir Starmer\u2019s government a chance, but that it\u2019s been \u201ca car crash ever since Labour got in, especially for farming\u201d. Ward told Novara Media that he switched to Reform in May, his \u201conly political home\u201d, in part due to the party\u2019s support for farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a fan [of Farage]\u201d he said. \u201cNigel comes across as straightforward and patriotic for us as great British people. We\u2019re absolutely fed up with Westminster politics. Reform, I think, is saying the right things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cereal farmer Henry Moreton, based near Woodhall Spa, said he likes Reform\u2019s \u201cattitude\u201d on how \u201cwe need to back British agriculture and back British business\u201d. He described the party as \u201ca bit more open to how farming is part of the fabric of the country\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ward and Moreton aren\u2019t alone. One cattle farmer said she was happy to give Reform a shot, as a party promising to make change, while another said that \u201cFarage has got his head screwed on \u2013 and he\u2019s a countryside man\u201d.<\/p>\n

This image is one that ex-banker Farage, often seen donning countryside-coded attire, has long been trying to cultivate. But it\u2019s not all aesthetics: Reform\u2019s 2024 manifesto <\/a>also pitched itself towards the farming community in a big way. Reform promised to increase England\u2019s farming budget from \u00a32.4bn to \u00a33bn and \u201cput British agriculture back on its feet\u201d. The party said it would ensure 70% of food eaten in the UK is produced domestically, address supermarket price fixing, slash business rates on farm shops to zero and promote clear food labelling to allow consumers to reliably support British farmers. And it said taxpayer-funded organisations will be compelled to source three-quarters of their food from the UK in order to help reduce the environmental impact of food imports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s announcement on inheritance tax rules changes in last year\u2019s autumn budget also proved a gift for Reform when it came to winning over farmers. Under the changes, inherited agricultural assets worth more than \u00a31m will be taxed at a rate of 20% \u2013 half the usual rate \u2013 from April 2026. The Country Land and Business Association estimates this could affect up to 70,000 farms<\/a> in the UK.<\/p>\n

Farage was front and centre at a Westminster protest in February against these inheritance tax changes. Addressing the \u2018tractor rally\u2019 in a waxed Barbour-style jacket and checked flat cap, he even appealed to Lincolnshire farmers specifically<\/a>. \u201cCould it be they [Labour] just want lots of land because they\u2019re planning for another five million people to come into the country in the next few years?\u201d he said. \u201cThey want to cover tens of thousands of grade one agricultural land in places like Lincolnshire with solar panels. Could it be that there\u2019s an even deeper, more sinister agenda behind what they\u2019re doing?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reform\u2019s strategy of capitalising on farmers\u2019 anger about the tax is working. Moreton told Novara Media that it was a \u201cspiteful tax\u201d that will \u201ctear the heart out of British agriculture\u201d. Ward, who farms in partnership with his grandfather, said he was \u201cseriously concerned for [his] grandpa\u2019s wellbeing\u201d because he now \u201cfeels like a complete burden\u201d. He told Novara Media that Reform\u2019s opposition to the tax, meanwhile, was \u201ccommon sense\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tom Bradshaw, farmer and president of the National Farmers\u2019 Union, told Novara Media that Reform\u2019s policies aren\u2019t necessarily all good for farmers, however. \u201cFarage would be willing to do a deal with Trump which would undermine our standards and critically damage UK agriculture,\u201d he said, while noting that the promise to overturn the family farm tax \u201cwould be very, very welcome\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the impact of Brexit on farming. Farmers\u2019 support for a rebranded Brexit party \u2013 led by a single-issue campaigner who pressured prime minister David Cameron into holding a referendum on EU membership \u2013 might seem counterintuitive. Brexit\u2019s impact on farmers hasn\u2019t, by their own admission, been particularly positive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to one 2023 survey<\/a>, 69% of farmers said Brexit had had either a \u201cfairly negative\u201d or \u201cvery negative\u201d impact on their businesses. Farmers cited increased input costs, loss of EU subsidies, import and export issues and labour shortages as their top reasons. \u201cSince the decision to leave the EU, export volumes with the EU have fallen by 34%,\u201d Bradshaw said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a great recipe for success.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But although farmers admit Brexit hasn\u2019t yielded great results for them, not all blame Farage. \u201cWe were sold a fairytale, and we got a nightmare,\u201d Moreton said. \u201cI think if we\u2019d had Brexit like Farage wanted it, it would have been better. But it got watered down and watered down. So basically, we became an island state with European rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward is more circumspect, saying he still isn\u2019t a \u201cfan of Brexit\u201d, and that future trade deals and \u201cimporting chlorinated chicken\u201d are a worry. \u201cI know Reform would sign up to that in a heartbeat,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

One controversial area of Reform\u2019s agricultural policy is its pledge to scrap green farming subsidies and to stop the use of \u2018productive land\u2019 for green energy and rewilding. Reform rejects climate-related policies more broadly, and has promised to scrap the UK\u2019s net zero goals \u2013 in line with the interests of donors, 92% of whom<\/a> represent oil and gas interests or polluting industries, or are public climate deniers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Nature Friendly Farming Network has concerns about the long-term sustainability of Reform\u2019s package for farmers. Martin Lines, an arable farmer and the network\u2019s CEO, said he\u2019s worried about Reform\u2019s promise to remove funding for green initiatives that help keep farmers\u2019 businesses afloat. \u201cIf we don\u2019t invest in nature, pollinators, healthy soil,\u201d Lines said, \u201cwhere will food security be in a few years time?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But despite concerns around Brexit, US trade deals and green subsidies, many farmers still see Reform as the best alternative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not an absolute fanatic, but I do like how they\u2019re pretty straightforward, common sense, down the line,\u201d said Ward. \u201cThey just give me a sense that maybe they can sort this mess out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK has established itself as the unofficial opposition to Labour, with some polls showing it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-301931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114938067616575938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}