Farmers claim police are ‘intimidating’ them with letters threatening prosecution for potential protests against future inheritance tax policies

Enraged farmers who conducted two blockades at a port in opposition to changes in inheritance tax laws have accused the police of intimidation and trying to use fear tactics. They received letters cautioning them about potential prosecution for any future actions that disrupt ‘critical infrastructure’.

Holyhead Port, located in Anglesey, North Wales, was singled out on November 27 and December 5 by farmers apprehensive that they will no longer be able to transfer family farms to the next generation.

As per the current regulations, farmers are not required to pay inheritance tax. However, Chancellor Rachel Reeves plans to eliminate the tax relief on farms valued over £1 million starting in 2026. This decision has sparked protests nationwide, with two significant demonstrations held in Westminster.

Since the protests, Holyhead port has been temporarily closed after suffering storm damage but is set to partially-reopen on Thursday this week.

Now North Wales Police have sent farmers involved in the earlier protests letters warning: ‘Interference with use or operation of key national infrastructure is a criminal offence.’

Livestock farmer Dyfan Eilir Jones, 46, a member of the organising committee behind the protests, said: ‘It is bullying. 

‘We’re concerned with how the letters have been hand-delivered by two police officers. Farmers were recorded receiving the letters and made to sign a piece of paper declaring they’d received them.

‘We have been working constructively with North Wales Police but is this letter coming from them or have they been pressured by (the Welsh Labour governments in) Cardiff or Westminster?’

Farmers also reacted furiously online with one commenting on the Welsh Farmers’ Protests Facebook page saying: ‘Very polite threatening letter! I hope the Chief Constable ensures that all his officers are made fully aware of what THEY are allowed and not allowed to do and that they have a responsibility to enforce laws impartially.’

Another blasted the letter as a ‘scare tactic’ and urged fellow farmers to ‘ignore this bullying behaviour’.

As well as the IHT changes, farmers are angry about plans by the Welsh government to force them to rewild up to 30% of their land – which led to previous protests outside the Senedd in Cardiff.

Around 50 farmers turned up in their tractors at Holyhead – a major port for ferries between Britain and Ireland – preventing access between 11pm on November 27 and 3am the following morning, disputing six ferry sailings. Members of the public were allowed on and off boats but the passage of lorries was blocked.

The protest forced heavy goods vehicles to queue for hours outside the port unable to board ferries.

Farmers took similar action again the following week – before damage during Storm Darragh closed the port on December 7.

Mr Jones, who keeps 1,700 sheep and over 100 cows at a farm near Ruthin, Denbighshire, which has been in his family for over five generations, said ports were chosen for protests to ‘highlight the fragility’ of imported food supplies.

Delays caused by the action at Holyhead alone caused a three-day backlog of haulage. Protests also took place at Fishguard and Dover ports.

The letter from North Wales Police has been sent to the owners of tractors present at the earlier Holyhead protests.

While acknowledging the right to ‘peaceful protest’, officers warn the right is ‘not absolute’ – adding: ‘Section 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 2023 Allows for the imposition of certain conditions on public processions and assemblies if the senior officer at the scene reasonably believes that it may result in serious disruption to the life of the community.’

Police have criticised farmers for not using a ‘proposed protest area at Holyhead Port’ – rather than disrupting the main access to the facility.

Mr Jones said he and other organisers were not told about any designated protest area and claimed police had attempted tactics to minimise the impact of other demonstrations, such as trying to divert a protest in Llandudno away from a conference by the Welsh Labour Party in November.

‘They were leading us to places we didn’t want to go, down the backstreets. They didn’t want us to use the seafront,’ he added.

‘When we were in Holyhead and he was with a cop who did not tell us about an area being allocated for us to protest. They then threatened us with fines but we said that if that happened we would escalate protests.’

Mr Jones said that, as yet, no fines have materialised. He added that sources at the ports have said they are ‘100 per cent’ behind the protests as they stand to be hit by the government’s crippling National Insurance rise affecting employers.

In the letter to farmers, North Wales Police warned: ‘A person commits an offence if (a) They do an act which interferes with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure in England and Wales and (b) They intend that act to interfere with the use or operation of such infrastructure or are reckless as to whether it will do so.

’Causing interference with the infrastructure around Holyhead Port in a similar manner to that experienced on both the 27th November and 5th December is likely to involve an offence under Section 7 of the Public Order Act of 2023.

‘North Wales Police urge you to work with us, follow direction and ensure your protests are peaceful. I must warn you that failure to adhere to this advice, may leave you liable to prosecution.’

The letter added: ‘North Wales Police and specifically the Rural Crime Team enjoy a close working relationship with our farming communities and are fully committed to building on that relationship.’

North Wales Police have been contacted for further comment.