Good evening, everyone. It’s an honour to stand here tonight in solidarity with you all —our farmers, our families, the lifeblood of our rural communities and the very bedrock of our Northern Ireland economy.
 
We’re gathered here not just to talk policy but to defend a way of life that’s been passed down through generations and to send a strong message to the Labour Government to STOP with the family farm tax grab. A tax that will be decimate our family farms, that will jeopardise our food security and will end future generation farming.
 
I am the daughter of a farmer, the wife of a farmer and the mum of little boy who thinks he is a farmer … so I know for many here tonight, the inheritance tax issue is simply the ‘final straw’ for farmers in Northern Ireland. Right now, you all face relentless challenges that are coming not only from the Labour Government in DEFRA but also more locally.
 
Over the last 12 months farmers have been continually singled out for being the main pollutant of Lough Neagh with little or no reference of the raw sewage from the defective infrastructure within the loughs catchment area.
 
Farmers are plagued with TB, losing herds of cattle with little hope of the main route cause of the problem being dealt with and the threat to reduce compensation to farmers under the guise of poor biosecurity is causing untold hardship.
 
The refusal of any agricultural planning for sheds throughout Northern Ireland, even if it is resulting in environmental improvements, is slowing but surly strangling the sector.
 
And the continuing uncertainty around how much funding is going to support active farmers who provide the raw material for so many of our factories is leading to increased concerns. I am not surprised that so many of you have turned up tonight to voice your concerns. I am not surprised many of you are at breaking point.
 
The time has come to speak out and demonstrate the importance of our family farms, or I fear it will be too late, or we will have a countryside full of solar panels. Farms that are no longer viable and no food to feed our nation with. We feed 10 million people with our world class produce. Yet the Labour Party and those others pedalling their woke agenda will actually see the flying in of sub-standard produce which will undermine the very health of our nation because so many of our farms will be no more.
 
The list of challenges goes on, yet the Labour government continue to play fast and loose with the lives and the livelihoods of our famers.
 
But tonight we need to make our voice heard on this latest assault on farmers. The family farm tax regime which threatens to break apart our legacies that have been built with blood, sweat, and sacrifice. The spin and the play on figures by Labour doesn’t cut it. The rate is set at 1 million and who in this room when you tot up your land, your stock, your equipment won’t have a £100, £200, £300,000 bill to pass to your son or daughter. Who could withstand it with the average profit from a farm in NI sitting at £37,000 with many making much less. Families will likely face the heartbreak of selling land just to pay the government for the privilege of keeping some of what is already theirs.
 
Tonight we are not asking for handouts. We’re asking for a fair chance to keep our farms intact. We need policies that support, not hinder, the people who feed this nation.
 
You have a friend in me and in our party.
 
We have been to the fore in Westminster, we have voted against it, spoken against it, we are seeking to amend the forthcoming legislation, we have co-ordinated a joint, cross-party letter from all sitting MPs and Peers which is now in the Chancellors in-tray calling for action. Take heart farmers you have United politicians in NI - something few have ever achieved.
 
At Stormont our agriculture team lead by Michelle McIlveen is pressing for action on TB, pushing back on unnecessary bureaucracy for farmers and we tonight confirm to you all that the DUP support the ringfencing the £357 million from Westminster to be paid directly to farmers. This money is needed to protect one of the most important pillars of our economy, it is needed to feed us all and whilst there are other many pressing priorities we need to get the basics right … NO FARMERS, NO FOOD!
 
Farmers I am with you, I will protest with you, I will support you and I will ensure that your voice is echoed in the corridors of Westminster as we seek to overturn this obscene tax grab. We are in this for the long haul.

I WILL NOT ABANDON YOU OR LET YOU DOWN.