Alan Leedham

@ClaireCoutinho Older farming systems were built around ecological balance rather than chemical correction. Maybe less chemicals in our food is a good thing🤷🏼‍♂️

Inept government decisions at the highest level lead to UKs two bioethanol plants being closed in a botched trade deal with Trump last year. Essential products - bioethanol, high quality protein feed and CO2 all lost. Longer term wider bio-based products potential. @Mather_Keir

Not quite. Capitalism means voluntary exchange and competition on a level field—but UK farms face asymmetric burdens: domestic red tape, Net Zero mandates, fuel/fertiliser taxes, and subsidy cuts that cheap imports (often from subsidized or lower-standard producers) sidestep. That's policy distortion, not pure market forces. Fix the distortions at home, and markets can sort it—while preserving resilience. Dependency on foreign supply chains has hidden costs when shocks hit.

As you know, farming is very close to my heart. I have had lots of questions on what Restore Britain would do for rural Britain. The following points will form the basis of our Restore Britain agriculture policy. Above all else, we are clear that food security is national security. Without it, the country starves to death. It really is that simple. So what would Restore Britain deliver for British farmers? Fix delayed and unpredictable subsidy payments. Payments must be on time and reliable. Cashflow matters for farmers. I am one. I understand better than most. Uncertainty is a real killer. Anyone in farming knows how volatile the system is. Mutating rules are impossible to follow. Not to mention the ludicrous staff turnover at DEFRA. Farming is a long term, capital intensive business. It needs one thing above all else. STABILITY. Farmers need a five to ten year plan, absolute minimum. I pushed DEFRA on this - I received a totally clueless response. They just don’t care. Slash and simplify red tape - and let farmers FARM. Enough inspections for the sake of inspections. Enough paperwork that adds cost but no value. Stop the endless form filling. Hours and hours farmers spend filling out these pointless sodding forms. Restore Britain will get farmers FARMING. Reform DEFRA and Natural England from top to bottom. These bodies have become obstacles rather than enablers. They need root-and-branch change. Mass sackings. Bring in people with genuine agricultural experience. The current inhabitants are city-dwelling liberals who understand nothing about rural Britain. Not good, not working, not acceptable. Start again. Review the power of the supermarket distribution oligopoly. A handful of buyers hold excessive power over our farmers. Producers should not be forced to sell at such low costs while a tiny number of supermarkets protect their margins - urgent review needed. Restore Britain will deliver fair competition. Ensure fairness. British farmers are required to meet ultra high standards, so imports must meet the same. They do, or they don’t come in. British farmers must not be undercut by overseas producers benefiting from cheaper transport, lower standards, and often hidden state support. With Restore Britain, fair competition means equal rules. End the punishment of farmers under lunatic Net Zero policies. Farmers should not be penalised for heating buildings, running machinery, or producing food. When China burns through a mountain of coal every few seconds, we must realise that British farmers are not the enemy. Scrap EU-era rules we no longer have to follow. Keep what works. Bin what doesn’t. Brexit should mean regulatory freedom. We left. Despite the total mess it has been, we must at least get some of the benefits for British farming. Relax and radically simplify planning. Restore Britain will allow and encourage diversification - farm shops, processing, storage, tourism, and sensible on-farm development. Give tax breaks for diversification and stop blocking rural enterprise. Overhaul planning. Hand the power to responsible farmers, and away from the council planning toads. It's their land, they should be able to do what they like (within reason.) Protect family farms through fair taxation. Restore Britain would scrap the farming tax in its entirety. Scrap ALL inheritance tax. And not just for farmers, but for everyone. We must help older farmers pass farms on to the next generation without being punished for doing so. Invest in people. Restore Britain would expand farming apprenticeships. Help vocationally minded young people into agriculture. We would give the next generation of farmers a future that they are willing to dedicate their life too. It is a risk. If they take it and succeed, they should be rewarded. Back British labour. Make it easier for British workers to take up farm work. Use benefit claimants who constantly refuse work to pick vegetables or whatever. We DO NOT need cheap unskilled foreign labour. We’ve got it right here. Clamp down on seasonal visas - it’s being abused to import low-skilled labour from incompatible cultures that go on to overstay their visa, commit crime and generally become a nuisance to our society. Support domestic fertiliser and input production. Restore Britain would immediately act to reduce reliance on volatile global supply chains for essential inputs. Food security depends on input security. This is so important. Without this, there is no farming. You don’t just plant a seed in the ground and there’s a vegetable months later, despite what many MPs believe. Scrap the proposed firearms licence changes. They are unnecessary, bureaucratic, and would criminalise responsible farmers while doing absolutely nothing for public safety. We would leave responsible gun owners alone. Public sector buying British. This is a huge, untapped market. We’ve got schools and hospitals shipping in poor quality produce from overseas, rather than purchasing from local farmers. That’s wrong. Even if it’s slightly more expensive, the knock-on effects for the economy will be vast. The public sector is a vast buying power - use it to back OUR farmers. A Restore Britain Government would BUY BRITISH. Enforce CLEAR labelling. People must know exactly what they are buying - where it was produced, to what animal welfare and food safety standards, and under which regulatory regime. No misleading packaging. Make it abundantly clear what is British and what is not. We all want to support our farmers, let’s make it as easy as possible. Non-stun slaughter, banned. I have been consistent on this. It is cruel, barbaric and un-British. Animal welfare comes ahead of religious exemptions. Both halal and kosher slaughter would be banned, happily. This is the basis of Restore Britain's policy for rural Britain. There will be much more to come. I believe it is all logical, and would deliver the food security that Britain so desperately needs in an uncertain world. Farmers - it’s been a long time, I know. But you finally have a political party that will fight for you. Not just to reverse recent changes, but to fundamentally overhaul the ENTIRE system. Restore Britain is on your side. I hope you consider backing us.

How’ve we gotten to the place after a decade of policy development that the best the UK can manage for food production is to import it & the best we can do for nature is ring our hands & wonder why those working for half the minimum wage aren’t funding it from their own pockets?

EU proposing to suspend CBAM on fertiliser imports in recognition of the dire financial straights facing their farmers - while also boosting support payments by ~10% to a bloc budget of €400bn. @EmmaforWycombe @angelaeagle fwi.co.uk/business/marke…

Labour's revised death tax will lose huge amounts. The Treasury now predicts that its post-climbdown family firm & farm death tax will raise a measley £370m, - a rounding error in the public finances - but that is still a huge overestimate - this tax will actually lose lots of money & hamstring the economy. It's the larger firms & farms that are still affected & the incentive effects will be large. The threat of forced sale to pay the tax wll push many into action that hinders growth: 1. Owners will cease investment in order to build up sufficent reserves to pay the tax 2. Owners will cease investment in order to lower the valuation of firms for tax purposes 3. Owners will emigrate in order to save the family firm 4. Fewer people will chose Britain as a place to start a business if 20% will confiscated on death. 1/7

@BpsmithUk @Vicktor1111 Of course it's IHT that can wipe them out. If the landlord has to sell up then it's over for them, simple.

@LeedhamAlan @Vicktor1111 Not by IHT, Alan. The £5million allowance for most takes them well out of range, & there are plenty of measures they can take to avoid IHT - which is still half what any other must pay outside farming, & unique in haveing 10 years to pay. Stop #GasLighting, its a bad look.

We can now see clearly just how much #GasLighting has been going on from the Farmers, Tories & Reform. The UK has *209,000 farms*. Only *375* were affected by the Budget change to Inheritance Tax. That number has now been reduced to *185*. #SlowHandClap👏 theguardian.com/environment/20…

@BpsmithUk @Vicktor1111 They may be, see above. They will be if their landlord has to sell. They may be affected really badly.

@Vicktor1111 @LeedhamAlan Tenants aren't afffected.

@Vicktor1111 @BpsmithUk The tax rules are the same, APR and BPR. Farms tend to need much more investment to make a viable business, I know window cleaners doing well with just a van and some brushes. Farming is very different to that!

@LeedhamAlan @BpsmithUk But is it any different to any other family business?

@Vicktor1111 @BpsmithUk Tenant farmers may well pay IHT, their livestock, crops, produce, fertilizer, machinery etc all have to be valued, even the tenancy itself may be deemed to have a value. It's not just land, it's the whole business, the total source of their livelihood.

@BpsmithUk They never make it clear that Tenant farmers do not pay IHT. Their landlords (who do not farm the land) do

@montysbiscuit @VictoriaAtkins Labour's trade deal with the US will import meat that's been treated with 15 times more antibiotics than British meat. They've about finished our bioethanol industry by importing subsidised US bioethanol from GMO grain, grown with chems banned here years ago. Don't trust 'em

@VictoriaAtkins Tories threw away our safeguards with Truss & her useless trade deals. Labour have already stated that we will only import from countries with highest welfare standards. You wanted to import USA beef injected with hormones & salmonella chicken. Short memories?

Labour risks undercutting British farming if these bans are not matched by higher welfare standards for imported meat. Like their Family Farm Tax, Labour simply doesn’t care about rural Britain. thetimes.com/article/4eecbb…

Meanwhile, in Britain. link.thetimes.co.uk/view/621575cc9…

🚨🇫🇷 Meanwhile in France Farmers refuse a confrontation & choose to sing and unite in front of Police & the Army instead. When Politicians declare Farmers as their enemy and deploy the Military against the people who grow everyone food, then they’re probably not working in the interests of the people anymore.

🚨🇫🇷 Meanwhile across France A number of treasonous Politicians are finding themselves ‘Shitted In’ their homes this Winter because the French Farmers have had enough.

I spoke up for farmers in Parliament yesterday.  Labour Ministers sat there laughing - all whilst farmers watched on from the public gallery. This is the level of disrespect our farmers have come to expect 👇

MPs are debating Inheritance Tax ahead of a vote on the Finance Bill. 🚨🗳️ Markus Campbell-Savours advised ministers to take note of his colleagues on Government benches who have been increasingly vocal and to recognise the ‘deep discomfort' this is causing across rural Britain. 👩‍🌾 READ MORE: ow.ly/5xhF50XKtSK

Why, oh why, will the Prime Minister not change course? Parliamentary Committees, MPs, farming stakeholders & our hard working farming community are all calling for his disastrous Family Farm Tax to be scrapped. But the PM remains determined to push on - despite all warnings.

I’ve had to take myself away from politics for the last couple of hrs. I’m in disbelief. I’ll always give politicians, whatever colour badge,the benefit of the doubt of “cockup over conspiracy”. Starmer is something else. Soulless, heartless, vindictive

Nothing matters at all to Starmer other than getting his own way. ✍️ Madeline Grant spectator.co.uk/article/does-k…