'Just talk to us' say farmers who demonstrated at Keir Starmer's Milton Keynes media event

Mr Starmer was visiting the under-construction Elverby Primary School in Newport Pagnell, as part of an event promoting the Government’s new towns policy.

However, despite the fact the details of the event were not made public, dozens of farmers turned up to protest Labour’s inheritance tax policy.

Firstly the farmers blared their horns about 100m from where the Prime Minister was talking to staff from the development company, who are constructing hundreds of homes in the area.

Then suspecting the Prime Minister was locked in, members of the protest group got closer to Mr Starmer’s media spot.

They could be seen calling out to the UK leader as he was escorted away in a car via a different route, after dozens of tractors had blocked the path between the Prime Minister and the allocated interview room.

Philip Weston, who was among the farmers who could be heard yelling “just talk to us” at the Prime Minister, told The MK Citizen: “The man isn’t coming to us. We’re not getting any discussion [the Government] are not forthcoming. We had two-and-a-half hours of good debate in London, with all the other MPs, putting factual information on the table. And then their MP tells us to ‘go away’.”

He added that the inheritance tax changes, that would cost certain farms an extra 20% in tax, would be “devastating”.

Other farmers, who did not want to be named, said the change was “criminal” and that it was punishing farmers who should be seen as the “custodians” of UK produce.

One farmer, who traveled down from Leicestershire, said if his grandmother, aged 88, was to pass away, her entire business, which employs eight people, would no longer be financially viable.

The farmers said they were waved towards the event by traffic enforcement staff, who did not stop them from entering the construction site. One farmer said they were informed of the secret event via an unnamed ‘source’, but did not elaborate on how they found out about the private visit.