A farmer has warned the Labour Government will need “the army” to stop the  tractors descending on Westminster ahead of the Budget.

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Speaking to GB News, Olly Harrison said the Government and the Met Police “do not care about the rural community” after cancelling their planned Budget protest.

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Speaking to the People’s Channel, Berkshire Farmers Group organisers George Brown, Dan Willis and Caroline Graham Dr Alison Heydari, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, withdrew consent for the demonstration with less than 10 hours to go.
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Highlighting their devastation at the U-turn by police, Mr Brown said: “Yeah Martin, we’re absolutely devastated. We’ve been working on this for months and we’ve had a great relationship with the Met.”

Asked by host Martin Daubney if the move “smacks of two-tier policing”, Mr Harrison agreed: “It smells a bit fishy to me, definitely.

“A group of farmers not that far from here organise something for Budget day, because obviously we want a positive outcome in the Budget. They’ve got some things organised and they’ve been engaged with the Met for probably two or three months.

“And it all seemed to be okay, and then just on the 11th hour, they say, ‘oh no, you can’t come with any tractors, you can’t do this’. And it’s just like, well, why? And they are like, ‘well, it’s come from above’.”

As Martin highlighted that the Met Police knew about the plans for 400 tractors to be at the protest “a month ago”, Mr Harrison responded: “Does the rural community not matter?”

Olly Harrison has warned that the authorities will need ‘the army’ to stop the tractors descending on Westminster

He explained: “What I don’t understand is that these tractors are on the way. I’ve seen on Twitter, tractors are on the way from York. They’re not going to turn around when they’re so close, are they?

“So to me, it made perfect sense to keep them all in Whitehall because no one really lives there, no one important anyway, stick them in there, let them have a chin wag, let them listen to the Budget and off they go.

The farmer stated: “Trying to stop them, what are they going to do, put a ring around London and stop every  tractor trying to come in? It’ll just bring the police to a standstill, and they’ll need the army to stop them.”

Suggesting that the tractors and the protesting farmers will still demonstrate in Westminster on Wednesday, Mr Harrison told GB News: “Well, from what I hear, they’re still on their way.”

Farmers were set to bring their tractors to Whitehall as part of their latest protest against the family farm tax 

Asked if the protesters will take their demonstration “on foot” to Whitehall if their tractors are not permitted, Mr Harrsion stated: “Oh yeah, definitely. There were a lot coming on foot anyway.

“There’s a few tractors coming, but most were on foot already.”

In a statement, the Berkshire Farmers Group told GB News: “Imposing these conditions on a protest with this short of a notice is, in our opinion, a malicious approach to preventing our right to protest, leaving little time for appeal or for facilitating their requests.

“Therefore, we, Berkshire Farmers Group and all associated organisers including but not limited to George Brown, Dan Willis and Caroline Graham, wish to inform all attendees that this protest has been cancelled by Dr Alison Heydari of the Metropolitan Police, and we absolve ourselves of all responsibilities for any attendance to this event.”
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Mr Harrison told GB News that they ‘do not care for the rural community’

Announcing the decision on Tuesday afternoon, Scotland Yard said: “We have had a number of conversations with the protest organisers to safely manage the event.

“While people will still be able to demonstrate, conditions have been put in place to prevent protesters from bringing vehicles, including  tractors or other agricultural vehicles to the protest.
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“This decision was taken due to the serious disruption they may cause to the local area, including businesses, emergency services and Londoners going about their day.”

While stressing that the protest had not been banned, the Met Police added: “Any person taking part in the farmers protest must remain in Richmond Terrace, Whitehall.”