Postponed Perth tractor run happening tomorrow

Protest is part UK-wide #StopTheFamilyFarmTax campaign.

By Keith Findlay

January 31 2025, 5:23pm

Tractors on the road during a recent protest in Dundee. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DC Thomson

Farmers will drive their tractors through Aberdeen and Perth tomorrow in the latest Scottish protest over the so-called “family farm tax”.

The tractor runs were meant to take place last weekend but had to be postponed due to the havoc wreaked by Storm Eowyn.

Farmers throughout the UK continue to highlight their fears for proposed changes to inheritance tax reliefs, warning they threaten the viability of family farms.

What’s the plan for Perth?

The plan for Perth is for tractors to congregate at both Huntingtower and East Dron.

They will leave these locations at 11.30am to travel to Edinburgh Road, aiming to reach there by noon. Farmers will then be free to speak to members of the public and politicians until 1pm.

Tomorrow’s north-east tractor rally will leave Thainstone Mart, near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, at 11am and travel on the A96 towards Aberdeen. After turning at Bucksburn the convoy will travel to Marshall’s Farm Shop, in Kintore, arriving there around noon.

Unity and strength

Similar rallies and events have been taking place in other parts of the UK in a show of unity and strength to demonstrate visual support for the #StopTheFamilyFarmTax campaign.

The UK Government plans to slash valuable inheritance tax reliefs for farmers from April 2026. It claims the changes will affect just over one-quarter of all UK farms.

But a recent study by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board revealed the controversial changes will affect more than 75% of Scottish farms larger than about 123 acres.

Farmers stage a protest in central London against the inheritance tax changes. Image: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

MP says farmers of all ages ‘rightly concerned’ about tax changes

Conservative MP Harriet Cross will attend today’s rally in Aberdeen.

She said: “While farmers of all ages are rightly concerned, at the immediate heart of this are our elderly farmers, who want, and had always planned, to keep their farms until death to pass them on to the next generation.

“Instead, they are now left knowing if they live beyond April 2026, when the measures come in, their children may have to break up or sell the farm to pay the inheritance tax.”