A huge crowd of over 6,000 farmers from across Northern Ireland (NI) attended a rally organised by the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) on Monday evening.

The event at the Eikon Exhibition Centre near Lisburn was part of a UK-wide campaign to overturn changes to agricultural property relief (APR) from inheritance tax.

“What a mandate we have. The one clear single message from tonight is that this decision has to be reversed. NI agriculture has spoken,” said UFU president William Irvine.

In his opening remarks, Irvine accused the UK government of “twisting the numbers” by continuing to suggest that 73% of farms will be unaffected by its plans.

“This is not just wrong, it's deceptive. The Labour government is out of touch with the realities of farming,” he said.

The controversial changes to APR for inheritance tax were announced in last month’s autumn budget and are due to come into effect from April 2026.

It will see a tax-free threshold of £1m for APR and business property relief combined, with a 20% tax rate applying to the value of agricultural assets after that.

The fear is that farm families will be hit with massive inheritance tax bills and will be forced to sell off farmland to cover tax liabilities.

The changes to APR have been dubbed “the family farm tax” by the UK farming organisations and further protests on the issue are taking place in London on Tuesday.

Emotion

Lorraine Killen from Newbuildings, Co Derry, received a standing ovation at the UFU rally after delivering a highly emotive speech about her own family farm.

“We will fight for our farms, for our families and for the generations that came before us. And we will fight all the harder for the generations yet to come,” she said.

The UFU rally on Monday evening was by far the largest farmer protest to happen in NI for decades.

Representatives from across the political spectrum in NI addressed the event, with all speakers setting out their opposition to the planned changes to APR.

The show of strength by the NI farming community potentially served as a warning sign to local politicians, as other important policy decisions related to farming are made at Stormont.

This includes policies related to bovine TB, planning permission for livestock sheds and the budget for farm support schemes.