Elon Musk took a break from sending people to Mars to post about tractors in Beverley on social media.
After being highly vocal during the US Election, the contents of Elon Musk’s recent posts on X (formerly Twitter) suggest the world’s richest man has turned his attention to UK politics. In the past couple of days Mr Musk has posted about a range of contentious issues including even calling for the imprisonment of the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. Now, a protest in Beverley has caught the attention of Mr Musk as local politicians and farmers met to voice their anger at the Government’s changes to inheritance tax.
In her Autumn 2024 Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that farmers will not longer be protected by a 100% relief from inheritance tax and will, from April 2026, have to pay 20% inheritance tax on farms worth over £1 million.
In protest to this, farmers from Beverley and the surrounding area met in Beverley Westwood before a convoy of tens of tractors drove through the town centre. Mr Musk reposted a video of the tractors driving through Beverley, saying “Good for the farmers.”
Good for the farmers https://t.co/a6UNqsps14
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2025
East Yorkshire MP, Charlie Dewhirst, who represents Bridlington and The Wolds in Parliament attended the event and told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he hopes to make East Yorkshire farmers’ voices heard at the national level. He said:
“It’s a two pronged assault, in Westminster I’ve got a job to do to represent these farmers by talking in debates and bringing their voice to Government.
“Today is about making their voices heard locally and making sure we are out there saying this is wrong and what Government are doing is destroying rural communities.”
The Conservative MP also explained how both himself and farmers will continue to protest the Government’s policy. He added:
“We will keep this up for as long as we have to. We are not going to back down on this until the Government start listening.
The protest took place before the East Riding Council meeting at which Cllr Sean McMaster presented a motion urging the Council to write to Government figures including the Chancellor and the Prime Minister encouraging them to ‘think again and reverse the changes to inheritance tax and capital gains tax on farmers.’
Cllr McMaster, who represents the South East Holderness ward for the Conservative Party, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service :
“We’re trying to send the message to central Government that farmers are not happy with the inheritance tax, its unfair and it will have a detrimental effect on our rural communities and it needs to be stopped.”
Cllr McMaster’s motion was overwhelmingly passed by councillors 51 to 5, with a single abstention. Those who voted against the motion included Labour Councillor David Nolan who represents the Hessle ward. Cllr Nolan said the inheritance tax only affects “the very wealthiest farmers, not ordinary farmers.” He added:
“We tried to work out how many farmers in the East Riding were affected, and it’s probably a handful when you look at the figures and yet it’s been characterised as an attack on farmers.”
Also at the protest was the leader of East Riding Council, Cllr Anne Handley. Cllr Handley (Conservative – Goole North ward), said:
“I’m absolutely delighted with today’s turnout, look at all this, there must be 70 tractors here today. What a fantastic turnout!
“East Riding is 93% rural, we are the largest region in the country for pigs. We grow the food, we produce meat here, what are we going to do, just walk away from that?”
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