Thank you for subscribing!
The clip imagines what it would look like if rural Britain brought its concerns quite literally to Andy Burnham’s door
Farmers and their animals are seen invading No10 in a hilarious new spoof video promoting a new campaign from the Countryside Alliance.
Tractors line Downing Street, cows make themselves at home in the Cabinet Room, and a hunt races through the iconic black door of No10 to raise awareness of the crisis facing rural Britain.
As part of the new Campaign for the Countryside, 27 devastating Labour policies have been identified which have pilloried the nation’s farmers since 2024.
The campaign, which will officially launch at an event in Westminster on September 14, brings together politicians, rural businesses and communities from across farming, horseracing, greyhound racing, shooting, hunting and angling.
To highlight their plight, the striking video imagines what it would look like if all those groups quite literally brought their concerns to Andy Burnham’s door.
“The countryside is coming to Westminster. Rural Britain deserves a place at the heart of government,” a narration says.
“If our leaders want to speak for all parts of the country, they have to hear the countryside too.”
In the video, sheep are herded along the street outside the gates of Downing Street, lined with tractors and trailers.
Farmers can be seen filing through the No10 door with their animals and into the marble halls of the Prime Minister’s London residence.
Cutting to the Cabinet Room, the likes of John Healey and Ed Miliband are replaced with cows and pheasants chewing through Labour’s 2024 ‘Change’ manifesto.
No10 is then shown converted to agricultural use, growing wheat in the garden and giving a room over to beehives.
A pair of horse riders then race through the halls of the building, with a man sounding a hunting horn and unleashing a gaggle of Beagles.
In a touching final sequence, the world-famous Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, Larry the Cat, is shown meeting one of the cows entering No10.
The promotion may prevent humorous scenarios, but the Campaign for the Countryside insists it is raising serious issues over the desperate state of British rural life.
The organisation's analysis highlights Labour policies, including the Family Farm Tax, higher National Insurance contributions, changes affecting rural businesses, and planning reforms, as sources of misery.
Other policies cited include increased pressure on agricultural land from renewable energy projects, changes to double-cab pickup taxation and the abolition of the £110 million Rural Services Delivery Grant.
The Alliance says the cumulative impact has left rural communities under increasing pressure.
The countryside contributes more than £300billion a year to the economy and supports more than four million jobs, while also playing a central role in Britain's food production, tourism and leisure.
Countryside Alliance chief executive Tim Bonner said the arrival of a new Prime Minister represented an opportunity for a “genuine reset”.
“After two years where an unprecedented range of government policies have left rural people feeling under attack, a new Prime Minister provides an opportunity for the government to reset its relationship with rural Britain,” he said.
“Rural people are not asking the Government to solve every problem overnight. They are asking to be heard, understood and treated fairly.”
Mr Bonner said the Government should recognise the countryside's contribution to economic growth.
“It is time to treat the countryside as part of the solution to a united Britain, not a problem or an afterthought,” he said.
“We are asking the government to work with rural communities, not against them. Now is the time for a rural reset.”
The campaign comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to generate “good growth in every postcode in the UK”.
The Countryside Alliance says around one in four British postcodes are rural and is calling on Andy Burnhamt to ensure those communities are included in that ambition.
