The environment secretary’s speech to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference was interrupted by protesters who remain angry over the decision to impose inheritance tax on farms.

Steve Reed unveiled a series of policy sweeteners designed to ease tension with the farming community over the policy, but was met with muted applause and a hostile audience.

Shortly after beginning his speech, Mr Reed was confronted by protesters holding banners that were thought to be about the government’s plan to force farmers to pay 20% inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1m from April 2026, when they were previously exempt.

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Mr Reed said he understood “the strength of feeling in the room” but could not “give the answer” the audience wanted on inheritance – which is that the government should scrap the policy.

“I’m sorry, it’s a decision that we have had to take,” he said.

Among the raft of measures unveiled by Mr Reed was a long-called-for extension of the seasonal worker visa programme by five years to boost profits for farmers.

He also announced £30m to increase payment rates in higher-level stewardship schemes, new requirements for government catering contracts to back British produce and a multimillion-pound investment in technology strengthening controls on animal disease and protecting farmers in trade deals.

‘You must correct this urgently’

But the announcements were overshadowed by palpable anger at the inheritance tax policy, which NFU President Tom Bradshaw branded “cruel” and “morally wrong”.

He said older farmers “are now facing that very real dilemma that unless they die before April 2026, their families will face a family farm tax they simply cannot afford to pay”.

“What a cruel position to put elderly people in by no way of warning, by way of a broken promise,” he added.

“Government, you must correct this urgently.”

Those in favour of the change say it will significantly reduce the use of agricultural property for large-scale tax avoidance, ensure a closer relationship between the agricultural and market values of land, and create a greater diversity of land ownership.

But the move has been condemned by farmers who have staged a series of protests in Westminster over the policy, which they fear will put small farms out of business.

After his speech to the NFU conference, the environment secretary was heckled and repeatedly challenged in a question-and-answer session over farmers who questioned whether the best tax planning would be to die before the inheritance tax changes came into effect,

“I’m really sorry about the individual circumstances, but it’s very difficult for the secretary of state to comment on individual circumstances,” he said.

He pointed to the financial “black hole” the government inherited from the previous Conservative government and highlighted the need to stabilise the economy.

“I’ve explained to you why we had to take a decision that I know has been very, very difficult, but we will focus on making farms more profitable, because that seems to me, the problem at the heart of the crisis in the sector,” he said.

Extending the seasonal workers’ visa programme was welcomed by the NFU for providing “much-needed certainty” for farmers. A shortfall in the number of season worker visas granted by the Home Office since the UK left the European Union has been blamed for leaving tonnes of food unpicked, costing the agriculture industry millions.

Mr Bradshaw said the extension had been a “key ask of ours for many years, and its introduction will help safeguard the future of UK food production”.

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To the sound of farmers sounding their tractor horns outside the conference venue in London, Mr Reed also outlined plans for a 25-year farming roadmap and food strategy, which will prioritise food production and make farm businesses more resilient to shocks such as severe flooding, drought and animal disease.

He told the conference: “I will consider my time as the secretary of state a failure if I do not improve profitability for farmers up and down this country.”

He added: “Ours is an outward-facing trading nation, but I want to be clear that we will never lower our food standards in trade agreements.”