No tractor ban at London farmer's protest, claim stems from now-revised report

What is the claim? 

Social media users have claimed that the police have imposed a “tractor ban” ahead of farmers' mass protest in London on November 19. The protest is organized in response to changes in the inheritance rules by U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves. 

A Facebook user wrote, “Police have imposed a tractor ban on farmers planning a mass protest over the Chancellor’s inheritance tax raid.” Similar posts sharing the same caption can be viewed here, here, here, and here. Some Facebook users also shared the claim alongside an article from The Telegraph, titled similar to the viral claim.

Screenshots of posts, some citing a report by The Telegraph. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found that The Telegraph's article has since been edited to remove references to the ‘tractor ban.’ London's Metropolitan Police also denied that tractors were banned at the protest and called the Telegraph report inaccurate.

What we found 

We noticed that the report by The Telegraph cited in the claim was titled ‘Farmers hit with tractor ban at London inheritance tax protest’ in the social media article preview. 

However, upon opening the link, we noted that the headline had been updated to remove the reference to a ‘tractor ban.’ The current headline of the report reads: ‘Farmers face arrest if they block roads with tractors at protest.’ The report does not mention a 'tractor ban' but includes a clarification from the Metropolitan Police.

A Google search of this quote led us to an X post (archived here) by the Met Police in response to a now-deleted post by the publication. The Met Police post says, “This story is inaccurate. There is no ban on tractors being brought into London. We have requested a correction and a retraction. Our full statement, setting out the actual situation, is below.” The post also contains a longer statement, now included in The Telegraph report. 

We searched for an older version of The Telegraph report using WayBack Machine, a tool that can archive online content. An archived version of the report from November 13, the day it was published, displays the original headline referencing the ‘tractor ban.’ We also discovered additional references to the tractor ban in the report are now absent from the current version. For instance, the first line in the archived version of the report is deleted from the current version, which reads, “Police have imposed a tractor ban on farmers planning a mass protest over the Chancellor’s inheritance tax raid"— a line shared verbatim by social media users. 

A screenshot of the archived version of the Telegraph report shows the original headline. (Source: Wayback Machine/The Telegraph)

Additionally, the archived version includes a quote from Clive Bailye, one of the march organizers, missing from the current report. In the archived version, Bailye told The Telegraph, “We’ve been asked by the police not to bring tractors into London in what is effectively a tractor ban.” 

This indicates that a report by The Telegraph, which has since been revised, has been used to incorrectly claim that tractors are banned in the November 19 farmers’ protest in London. 

The Telegraph has not published any clarifications or corrections regarding this report. Logically Facts has contacted The Telegraph for a comment, and this story will be updated if and when we receive a response.

The verdict 

The claim that tractors have been banned at the upcoming London farmers' protest is misleading. It originates from a now-revised report by The Telegraph.