Hot cross buns could be in short supply this Easter as farmers continue to respond to Rachel Reeves’s October budget. Angry farmers have threatened to stop transporting milling wheat that produces flour as they continue to resist the Chancellor’s controversial changes to inheritance tax.

Milling wheat is a crucial ingredient in making the Easter treats, meaning that supermarket shelves are at risk of laying empty as farmers fight back against a tax, which many have said could lead them to financial ruin. Since the announcement that farmers would no longer be exempt from inheritance tax, farmers have marched on Westminster and brought London to a halt as they push the Government to amend their plans. Farm protest leader Olly Harrison said: "Milling wheat is staying on farms. Farmers that grow milling wheat have gone on strike from April 1.

"They will not be loading any trucks with milling wheat and we will probably run out of flour.

"So if you're wondering why the shelves are empty, get onto your local MP and say you need to help these farmers out, you can't carry on putting them out of business.

"If there is rationing on bread and cakes and hot cross buns, it is the politicians’ fault, it’s not our fault, we can't carry on like this or we won't be in business."

Last year, UK farms produced more than 14 million tonnes of milling wheat, which enabled 85% of bread production to be done domestically.

The Government claim that the tax is necessary to prevent wealthy people from buying up farmland to avoid paying the tax on their death but farmers have insisted that they will not stop campaigning against a measure they believe could decimate the industry.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “We will not go away, we will not stop, we will not give in. We will fight the family farm tax until ministers do the right thing.

“Then we can move on. Because it’s not like producing the nation’s food has gotten any easier in the last 12 months. I have never seen such a crisis of confidence in our industry.”

Mr Bradshaw accused the Government of failing to be honest with farmers by failing to reveal the true scale of their plans during the election.

He added: “There were only 87 words in Labour’s manifesto about farming, but some of those words gave us hope for the future; policies on imports, binding targets for British food for the public sector, a recognition that food security is national security.

“We recognise these are still early days for a new government, but new ministers had hardly found their way to their offices when they broke their first promise. And it’s one which overshadows all else, wiping out our ability to plan, to invest and, often, to hope. It hangs over our farms, our families, our futures: the family farm tax.

“This policy is morally wrong. I have received hundreds of desperate messages, taken hundreds of panicked calls.”