Farmer protest sparks heated row as police impose ‘tractor ban’ – ‘They are unsung heroes!’

A planned protest by outraged farmers has sparked a fiery row after being dealt a fresh blow by the Metropolitan Police.

The mass lobby and protest, organised by the National Farmers’ Union, has had a ‘tractor ban’ imposed by the force, in a bid to prevent roads in the capital being blocked.

Clive Bailye, the founder of The Farming Forum, said members who are attending on November 19 have been “asked by the police not to bring tractors into London, in what is effectively a tractor ban”.

In preparation for the demonstration, a Met Police spokesman said they are “equipped with legislation to prevent obstruction and breaches of the peace in the eventuality of such tactics being used by protesters”.

Discussing the ban on tractors, commentator Jonathan Lis sparked fury on the GB News panel after suggesting that the “police are in charge” and it “is a crime” to block roads during a protest.

Weighing in on the ban, Lis explained: “It’s actually a crime to obstruct roads. And it’s interesting to me that the same people who are going to be complaining about that are all in favour of Just Stop Oil protesters going down for four years when they blocked the M25.

“People have a right to protest for political causes – they don’t necessarily have the right to block highways for considerable periods of time.”

In staunch disagreement of Lis, commentator Carole Malone argued that the farmers have been “messed about” by the government, and are the “unsung heroes” of Britain.

Malone stated: “These people are the unsung heroes of this country, and yet they’re being messed about by this government.

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“They’ve been told they can’t take the tractors because they can’t block the highway, it’s against the Highways Act. But as we’ve just tried to point out, we know that many other organisations block the highway on a regular basis.”

Offering further defence of the farmers, Malone told GB News that they are “not there to cause trouble”, but instead are “fighting to save their livelihoods”.

Malone claimed: “They are there to save their farms, they’re not going to be shouting in the street and punishing people. They’re going to actually talk to the government and try to get the government to backtrack on this appalling inheritance tax.”

Affirming his argument, Lis shut down Malone’s argument and said that although he can see “both sides of the argument”, protesters potentially blocking roads with tractors is “against the law”.

Lis explained: “If the farmers are just going with their own strength and it’s negotiated with police and liaised with police in the way that all protests have to be, then I have absolutely no criticism.

“Just Stop Oil literally went to jail – if the farmers went to jail, that would be single-tier policing.”

Hitting back at Lis, Malone concluded that she “hopes they do bring their tractors” into London as part of their protest.

She stated: “I hope the farmers do bring the tractors in, because I would like to see the cops take this on, because we can then talk about two tier policing. We can talk about the times that they’ve let other protesters block the roads.”