The Environment Secretary will meet the head of the National Farmers Union (NFU) on Monday, amid sector fury over what they say is a “horrible” family farm tax.

Sky News understands Steve Reed will meet Tom Bradshaw amid calls for the tax changes to be reversed, including from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.

It comes as the NFU announces it will organize a “mass lobby” of MPs to make their discontent known. This means that farmers will come to Parliament at the same time and demand to speak to their MP, which they have the right to do.

According to Budget documents, from April 2026, farmers will be able to claim 100% inheritance tax relief on the first £1 million of combined farming and business assets, and this rate will drop to 50% beyond that. .

The government is “restricting the generosity of agricultural aid” in a bid to make the inheritance tax system “more equitable”.

It will also spend almost £600 million on flood protection and agricultural projects in 2024/25, but warned that “there is a need to review these plans” for years to come.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “Farmers and producers have been left shaken by the changes announced in the Budget, which demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of how the UK agricultural sector is shaped and managed.”

He said current plans to change Agricultural Property Assistance (APR) and Business Property Assistance (BPR) “must be reversed, and quickly”.

Mr Bradshaw added: “Farmers are rightly angry and concerned about their future and that of their family farms, having been reassured by ministers ahead of the budget that the APR and BPR changes were not on the table .”

He also said the Treasury’s claim that it would only affect one in four farms was “misleading” because

“The £1 million cap on the APR shows how little this government understands the sector,” he said, pointing out that “very few viable farms would be worth less than £1 million sterling”.