Florence Harris, 8, speaks out against hated farm tax – and shames Labor | United Kingdom | News

Despite a succession of Labor MPs lining up yesterday to support the tax raid on Keir Starmer’s farming estates, eight-year-old Florence Harris remains defiant.

The youngster was pictured on the front page of the Daily Express sitting on a children’s tractor holding a sign reading: “When I grow up I WANT to be a FARMER” at the industry’s protest outside Westminster last month.

And now she’s speaking out forcefully on behalf of farming families across the country who worry deeply about whether children like her and her younger brother James will be able to pursue this vital profession.

When asked what message she would send to the country’s leaders, Florence replied: “All I want is for farmers to feel appreciated. Right now, politicians just aren’t thinking clearly. If that happens, the government will be a bit annoyed because then there will be less food and chocolate available.”

When Florence was four, she helped her father Rob load cattle from their Shropshire beef farm into a truck for the short trip to the slaughterhouse, and while Rob collected some documents from the farm, the driver of the truck asked young Florence what she wanted. will be when she grows up.

“A ballet dancer and an equestrian,” she told him.

“You don’t want to be a farmer?” he laughed.

“I already am,” she replied enthusiastically.

Four years later, Florence still enjoys getting up early to help her father on the 120-acre property in Orleton, Shrops, which has been in Rob’s family for three generations. Florence’s four-year-old brother James is also a keen budding farmer: his particular passion is tractors.

“Farming is my whole life and I have always wanted to work on the farm. I like friendly cows and I like helping dad,” Florence says.

The Daily Express’s crusade to save Britain’s family farms has shown how farming families will be ruined by the proposed policy of slapping a 20% inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1million.

The day after 45,000 farmers marched in London to protest new inheritance tax rules that many say will decimate the industry within a generation, Florence’s photo appeared on the front page . Sitting on a large toy tractor, in pigtails and with a contemplative expression, the little girl’s slogan summed up the fate of the future of agriculture.

Because if the government gets its way, Florence, James and generations of unborn British children will never be able to work the land their families have farmed for generations.

Planned changes to the Inheritance Tax Act will mean tens of thousands of family farms will be subject to a death tax, which could make it unviable for their descendants to continue farming, after the land and assets will have been sold to cover the controversial taxation.

In the case of the Harris family farm, Rob believes that inheritance taxes due upon his death could prevent his children from continuing to farm it.

“I always thought that Florence and James would be able to follow me as the fourth generation,” he says, a measured, calm man whose demeanor does not reveal his emotions.

“I don’t know anything other than farming, and as a little farm boy, I never wanted to be indoors. Like James, I was always desperate to get on a tractor.

He emphasizes that a farm is a community resource.

“It doesn’t just stop at the farm gates. Local schools come to visit us and we send them away with good beef to make burgers, showing them the process of producing quality food.

“We are clearing the school parking lot of snow and all the silt from the city after the floods a few years ago. We fill the tractor with balloons for the school fair and we raise money at Christmas by taking Santa Claus around the village.

“With the inheritance tax thresholds, we would be forced to sell land, which could make it unviable for Florence and James to continue farming.

“It is infuriating that this government does not take food security seriously. You wonder why you bother; the margins are already so low.

For Florence and James, this choice, when it presents itself, will prove devastating.

“At the age of four, Florence already knew she wanted to be a farmer,” says her mother Katie, 35, who grew up on a nearby farm before marrying Rob, the farmer next door.

In Covid times, Florence would wake up, at the age of four, to be dressed and ready to help Rob voluntarily. He says: “Even before my alarm went off at 5 a.m., she was dressed and ready. Now if you go to work on the weekend without her, she gets upset.

And there is always a favorite cow. “When I was little, I even rode my favorite,” Florence enthuses.

She tells me that draft animals don’t get names, but four years later she still remembers her ear tag number. “It was 1548,” she said. “She was really calm and she would come for cuddles. Her hair was really curly and could be brushed.

“I feel incredibly lucky because every time we get a new batch of cows, I go up to them and make new friends. I love them when they are baby cows, but also in the big shed where you can make friends for a year while they grow up. I’m going to see them after school.

Katie says: “Florence loves animals and James is the first to get on the tractor whenever he hears a tractor start. It’s really good that the kids enjoy different aspects and this great education on a family farm is all we could hope for for them. We hoped they could do the same with their children, if they had any.

“But as a parent, I think it’s very important that both children do activities outside of the farm, because farming, no matter how old you are, can be very lonely and isolating. It’s important to have a good group of friends to support us.

I ask Florence, who also takes dance classes, what she loves most about life on a working farm. “I like fixing things, like the straw chopper,” she says. “I held a wrench while Dad loosened the nut, and we fixed it. It was very satisfying.

“I also like helping Dad feed the cows. I take a shovel and push the food around so they can eat it.

James also shows a similar fascination with the family business and also enjoys using the shovel.

Katie says: “When he woke up early one morning this week at 3am, James and I ended up having a conversation about crop rotation and why grandpa grows different crops every year.

“They already have so much knowledge about agriculture and what we do here. »

The family is heartbroken by the impact of taxation on the potential future of both children. “James’ little face when he hears the tractor start…” says Rob.

Katie, who works as a self-employed accountant and also runs the local Brownie Pack, says: “Kids aren’t sitting in front of TVs and iPads, they’re outside. They are practical children with common sense; we are very lucky.

But of course, it’s not so much luck as opportunity. And these are opportunities that will be denied to future generations of family farmers if the government does not reverse its controversial policy.

It’s something Florence has thought deeply about in recent weeks, since the family trip to London for last month’s Farmers’ March.

“We couldn’t get out of the driveway because of the snow, so my uncle came to pick us up with a tractor,” Florence says enthusiastically. “The bus broke down in Swindon so we had to take a taxi and train to London and then the tube. Then Uncle Chris realized he had left all his luggage in the taxi! (They were returned a week later).

The family made it with just 10 minutes to spare at the start of the children’s pedal tractor race in central London. Before the event, farming parents had to fill out a form requesting a tractor for their child to drive and provide their address so the toys – sponsored by Claas and JCB – could then be donated to a children’s hospice in the area. region from which the rider came. .

“We barely got there in time,” says Florence, who says it was “incredible” to see her photo on the front page of the Daily Express the next day. So, at eight years old, what does she understand about the issue behind the march and her parents’ determination to all be there to support their farming community? It turns out that’s a lot.

“The government wants to close our family farms and make us pay sums that we cannot afford,” explains Florence. How does this make him feel?

“Angry. Because I really, really want to cultivate when I’m older.

When I ask her why, she replies: “It’s all the cows and other animals; be outside; play with them; the environment.

“I will definitely become a farmer,” she concludes.

But his ambition became even more demanding this week with the removal of major agricultural subsidies.

Rob says: “The government has just withdrawn all the subsidies; the only project currently left open is planting trees that won’t produce food, so that’s an extra hit on top of the inheritance tax changes.

“What has upset many people is the announcement of more than £500 million which will be earmarked to help overseas farmers. I think they’re doing it so that produce can be grown more cheaply than we can in this country, to bring prices down.

“In the UK they don’t take food sustainability seriously. Already, we would run out of food on August 14 if we only ate British products from January 1. So where would Christmas dinner come from? I wonder what else young Florence wants the readers of this newspaper to know.

She thought for a moment and said she wanted farmers to “feel appreciated.”