MP demands answers over London protest tractor ban

Shadow Defra secretary Victoria Atkins has demanded urgent answers from the Met Police over the last-minute ban on tractors entering Whitehall during Wednesday’s (26 November) farmer protest.

Ms Atkins, Conservative MP for Louth and Horncastle, has written to Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley expressing “serious concerns” about how the protest was managed.

See also: Small inheritance tax concession for farmers in otherwise damaging Budget

She said the last-minute decision to ban tractors access to Whitehall on Budget day (26 November) had shaken confidence in both policing and government decision-making.

I have written to The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, expressing my serious concerns about how yesterday’s farming protest was managed👇 pic.twitter.com/e9vC1UT1Kw

— Victoria Atkins (@VictoriaAtkins) November 27, 2025

Ms Atkins said organisers had cooperated “constructively” with police since 22 October, receiving official approval on 14 November for a demonstration involving tractors and machinery on Whitehall.

“Yet less than 24 hours before the protest was due to take place, a decision was taken to place conditions on the protest to prevent protesters from bringing vehicles,” she wrote.

Adding that many farmers were already travelling long distances when the reversal was issued.

The explanation given by Met Police – “serious disruption tractors or other agricultural vehicles may cause” – had led to “shock and speculation” and contributed to arrests “for the first time during farming protests in the capital”.

Ms Atkins has asked Sir Mark to explain “what changed” between 14 and 25 November.

Asking why other protesters, including a Brexit demonstrator with loudspeakers, were treated differently, and whether “representations or communications” were made by ministers or officials, including from No 10 or No 11 Downing St.

“Transparency and fairness are vital for trust,” she said.

The protest – organised by the Berkshire Farmers group under the banner Farmers To London: Budget Day – was billed as a peaceful show of solidarity over the Labour government’s planned “family farm tax”.

But what began as a coordinated demonstration ended with police seizures of tractors, arrests, and growing calls from MPs for clarity on what prompted the sudden reversal of permission for tractors on Whitehall.