Video: Farmers gear up for next week's protest outside parliament

The protest surrounds three key demands, including a ban on substandard food imports (Photo: Fairness for Farmers/Facebook)
The protest surrounds three key demands, including a ban on substandard food imports (Photo: Fairness for Farmers/Facebook)

Farmers will protest outside parliament next week due to concerns over lower quality food imports and the lack of measures to boost British food security.

Organised by campaign groups Fairness For Farmers and Save British Farming, farmers are being encouraged to take part in the tractor rally on Monday 25 March.

The protest surrounds three key demands: A ban on substandard food imports, a ban on 'dishonest' labelling and more measures to boost British food security.

It will start at New Convent Market at 5.30pm on Monday 25 March, where tractors will set off to Parliament Square in Westminster.

Farmers who are interested in participating are able to register their interest online. Organisers are hoping for at least 50 tractors to take part.

Save British Farming's founder, Liz Webster, has released a new video explaining why the protest is taking place, warning that farmers were 'fed up of the substandard imports pouring into Britain'.

It comes after hundreds of farmers staged a go-slow tractor protest in Canterbury earlier this month as concerns over government policy grows.

Save British Farming, which co-organised the Canterbury protest, said that "without farmers and land safeguarded for food production, there will be no food."

The group said: "We have signed such bad trade deals which really need to be ditched and we need to rid the trade barriers with our nearest neighbours to allow UK farmers access to markets.

"What we are asking for is a government plan on food and a fairer marketplace - whether that is with other countries or supermarkets."

Geoffrey Philpott, a cauliflower grower who farms in East Kent, said the protest in Canterbury was mainly centred on the need to restrict cheaper food imports.

“I am proud to have a Union Jack on all my produce, but why is it foreign produce that is packed in the UK can have a Union Jack on it?" he asked.

"The only reason is to deceive the public into believing it’s the healthiest and safest food you can buy."

He said food security was another top issue: "I hope to be farming for many years to come, but if things don’t change, I won’t be and I won’t be employing the fourteen people who work for me.

"Then we will be reliant on foreign produce that will not have the high standard of UK production. Once that happens, we could be held to ransom over pricing.

"Let’s hope people wake up quickly and support British agriculture so I can continue to farm for many years to come and supply healthy, safe produce for UK people.”

Elsewhere, in Wales, over 10,000 farmers took to the streets of Cardiff due to rising anger at the Welsh government's vision for the industry.