They have scrimped and saved to keep their family farm together, pay off debt and see it passed down to the next generation.

Now hundreds of angry farmers from across Suffolk and north Essex are expected to join a huge rally and lobbying event in Westminster today - because they fear the futures of their businesses are now on the line.

They feel betrayed after what they believed were assurances pre-election from Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Environment Secretary Steve Reed that farmers had nothing to fear from a Labour government.

Last year, Sir Keir reassured National Farmers' Union (NFU) members and suggested that a Labour government would do a better job for farmers.

"Every day seems to bring a new existential risk to farming," he said. "Losing a farm is not like losing any other business. It can't come back."

Now farmers are upset and bewildered by new inheritance tax rules which they worry will mean the end of many farm operations. Some see the measures as vindictive.

Agricultural Property Relief is being slashed in 2026. After the first £1m, they will have to pay 20% inheritance tax - which many claim will mean the death of smaller and medium-sized farms.

Many say their machinery and storage facilities alone can take them over the threshold - leaving the next generation with a huge bill they can't pay.

It's a major blow for an industry seen for many years as a "safe haven" for capital as farms have been exempt from inheritance tax.

Diss NFU's David Barker - whose family farms at Westhorpe, near Stowmarket - said as they headed to London to lobby MPs to take part in a mass rally at Westminster that they felt angry and betrayed.

David Barker (Image: David Barker) "Keir Starmer stood up at the NFU conference last year - and I was there - and promised they would work constructively and successfully with us to make things work better for us," he said.

"Obviously it's the inheritance tax changes which is the thing that's fired everyone up. It's basically preventing the agricultural succession."

Mr Barker will be meeting with four MPs from Suffolk and Norfolk - George Freeman (Conservative, Mid Norfolk), Ben Goldsborough (Labour, South Norfolk), Adrian Ramsay (Green, Waveney Valley) and Terry Jermy (Labour, South West Norfolk).

Tom Jewers, chairman of Stowmarket and Sudbury NFU, said he would also be heading to London by train and will be joined by a host of fellow farmers.

It was "an extremely concerning situation" and "just another thing" to worry about, he said.

t was "an extremely concerning situation" and "just another thing" to worry about, he said of the Budget changes.

He and others want the rally to come off peacefully and without disruption.

His group will be meeting with Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket's new Labour MP Peter Prinsley.

Mr Jewers is an arable farmer who farms 900 acres - 600 acres of which the family owns. His parents are in their mid-70s. Having spent a lifetime enjoying his working life, since the Budget all that has changed, he said.

"In the last fortnight it has been: 'What's the point of doing this?'"

Tom Jewers (Image: Tom Jewers) Stephen Rash, 68, a sixth-generation Suffolk farmer from Wortham, near Diss, will be attending the rally with his son, Tom, 41.

Now Stephen is looking at how to gift the farm to ensure it passes to the next generation. It's risky for older farmers - who must survive the gift by seven years and rely on the next generation. "If I don't live seven years and don't get my paperwork right it could be absolutely disastrous," he said.

Stephen Rash and son Tom at their farm at Wortham, near Diss  (Sonya Duncan)He is feeling "anxious and betrayed". He - like other farmers - believe the Treasury has got its sums wrong and will be challenging the figures and what it believes an average farm is worth.

But he is "not at all" hopeful that the government will listen and at least try to limit the damage. "They have invested a huge amount of political capital in this," he said.