Britain’s biggest business lobby group will swing behind the embattled farming sector today, warning Labour: ‘You can’t grow without food.’

The message from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) comes amid an outcry from farmers about tax changes announced at Rachel Reeves’s Budget.

CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith will tell the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) annual conference in London: ‘I know so many you are fearful of the impact – fearful you can’t pass livelihoods on to future generations.’

Ms Newton-Smith will say that the government’s growth plan is right to target ‘glitzy’ sectors such as clean energy, advanced manufacturing and life sciences.

But ministers must not forget other ‘foundational’ industries that underpin the economy such as chemicals, logistics and minerals, she argues.

‘Any growth plan will tumble, any industrial strategy will fall at the first hurdle… if we don’t first back our foundational sectors,’ Ms Newton-Smith will say.

‘Farming is a vital part of the everyday economy – the true job creators and community builders that prop up our whole economy.‘You can’t get growth unless you start by backing sectors like this.’

And Ms Newton-Smith will say the confidence needed to boost investment in farming has been lacking amid the ‘many challenges’ it faces including the Budget changes which the NFU has said could affect 75 per cent of farms.

The changes include imposing a 20 per cent inheritance tax on farms, reversing a previous exemption. The NFU claims that will force farmers to sell off businesses that have been in their families for generations.

CBI chief executive Rain Newton Smith (pictured) will tell the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) annual conference that farming is a ‘vital part of the everyday economy’

Farmers blockade Whitehall with their tractors in protest to changes to inheritance tax

Farmers drive tractors across Westminster Bridge in view of the Houses of Parliament during a demonstration

Farmers protesting with their tractors on Whitehall with placards on the front of vehicles, including one which reads ‘Don’t bite the hand that feeds you’

Farmers have blockaded Whitehall with their tractors in protest at the changes.

Ms Newton-Smith’s intervention will underline the idea that the farming sector is vital to the government’s aim of revitalising the economy.

Labour’s growth agenda is already struggling badly, with the economy stagnating over its first six months in power.

And the government’s decision to hike employers’ national insurance contributions, as well as imposing a raft of new workers’ rights, has caused business confidence to crumble.