AN ELLESMERE farmer who organised a ride out of tractors through the town centre says he wanted to support those lobbying in London.

John Baker, who is a third generation farmer at Eastwick Farm in Ellesmere, led a convoy of tractors from the Mere and around the town on Tuesday, November 19 to show support for those in London.

The farming community has been in uproar over planned changes to inheritance tax which was had not been applied to farms since 1992 but now will be applied to the first £1 million at 20 per cent, not the standard 40 per cent.

READ MORE: 'Family Farm Tax' could impact 300 North Shropshire farms

He added that while he is not affected by the changes, he wanted the Government to reconsider the impact on smaller farms but agreed larger groups should be taxed.

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“I just feel for all the family farms that are bigger than me,” said John, who also accused Labour of betrayal.

“We’ve been disadvantaged by the rise in land values through no fault of our own because of other investors coming in and buying it up which is increasing the value beyond the price that farmers can pay.

“There is some frustration about those people who have bought land so that they can ‘hide their money’, as it were, and have diversified it away from farming.

“But they’re a different equation and the Government should be looking at it much more logically and they probably need to pay the tax.

“Most genuine farmers would say but those that have worked hard on their farms have had to jump through loads of hoops for the last 15 years.

“Successive governments have given us all targets to achieve and all it’s changed – we’ve had different types of payments and we’ve had to diversify and sell our buildings and strips of land just to stay afloat.

“This could be the final nail in the coffin.

“It’s a sledgehammer to crack a nut approach and I don’t think they’re going top ,make a lot of money from this tax grab and will just affect a lot of farmers who are poorer anyway.

“It’s not going to fill their black hole and there’s a lot of things they can look at.”

John added that he was delighted to see so much support.

He added: “I didn’t try to spread the word too far – it’s just a little market town but I’ve had lots of support.

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“They rely on agriculture and farmers don’t have the £100,000 tractors because they want to but because it’s the tools of the trade.

“We’ve had to reduce labour and increase productivity and the only way is through machinery.

“Farmers are just doing their jobs.”