How can I be sure there is a future for me in farming?

Twenty-four-year-old Lydia Law spends her days buying grain and selling seed and fertiliser, but says 70% of her job as a farm trader is actually being "a therapist".

Working on what she describes as the "front line" between farmers and the market, she says the mood is "very demoralised" and the industry is in a "dark hole".

She hopes to eventually return to work with her father on their family farm near Royston, Hertfordshire, which grows cereals and sugar beet, and raises sheep and cattle, but is now questioning that prospect.

"How can I be sure that actually there's going to be a future for me there, and the farm can support someone coming into the business and trying to actually make a profit out of it?" she says.

In June the government published a Farming Roadmap and pledged £11.8bn for the industry.

As Andy Burnham prepares to enter Downing Street – and after two years of Labour in charge – what do Law and other farmers hope for from the new prime minister?

Law went to one of the rallies held to protest changes to farm inheritance tax, introduced in Labour's first Budget in 2024.

Farms had been largely exempt from inheritance tax since the 1980s, but Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a 20% levy on inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m from April 2026, a threshold that was later increased to £2.5m and a £5m allowance for couples.

But the bitter taste for farmers has lingered.

"You feel like you're digging yourself into a well and there's no sort of way up at the moment," Law says.

"We're not providing young people in this industry a future due to the fact that there's such uncertainty."

Could she foresee voting Labour in the future?

"Highly unlikely," she says, "I think we need actions over words."

Bonnie Oakley, 21, the head of quality control for a Norfolk and Suffolk grower, says farming has taken "a massive hit".

She also has a family farming background and wants ministers to tell the industry "we see you, you're noticed... we want that produce from you", which would "give farmers a boost".

She sees Labour's "positives" but the "hits taken on the farmers", she adds, "just slowly decreases" her chances of voting Labour.

"But it would never be a definite no – if they put the work in, then maybe yes."

Labour's 2024 manifesto said the party recognised "food security is national security", but some feel that promise has not been delivered.

Essex farmer Tom Bradshaw, who is also president of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales (NFU), says the line "gave us hope".

After Labour's first Budget "that was all dashed because of the changes to inheritance tax that we'd been promised wouldn't come", Bradshaw says.

"It's always been a big challenge for a Labour government to understand rural Britain.

"But there's 80 rural Labour MPs and the question for Andy Burnham is does he turn his back on those 80 Labour MPs or does he believe he can win those seats at the next election?"

The Labour Rural Research Group, which includes more than 40 Labour MPs representing rural and semi-rural constituencies, published a report this month making 27 recommendations for the rural economy.

In a foreword, Labour peer Baroness Mattinson warned some rural voters who had backed her party for the first time in 2024 "were now drifting away, disappointed".

"There's a lot of tension and a lot of frustration," says Alice Northern, 21, who works for Euston Farms in Suffolk as a tractor driver and assistant to the farm manager.

Northern, whose father, uncle and grandfather farm outside Baldock, Hertfordshire, says she "loves" her job and recently set up a network for women working in agriculture in the East of England to try to create more development opportunities.

She wants "to provide food for the country" but fears farming is becoming increasingly about "stewardship of the environment" and is "frustrated about the lack of clarity" over the industry's future.

For Northern, one challenge is balancing "the importance of paperwork and action".

Martin Lines, 54, farms at Papley Grove Farm near St Neots, Cambridgeshire, says he does not think this government is doing enough "to make sure the food we produce in the UK is getting on the consumer's plate at a fair price".

His advice for Burnham is to listen to rural voices.

"He's going to do a No 10 north. What about a No 10 in the countryside?"

Terry Jermy, Labour MP for South West Norfolk, has more than 500 farms in his constituency and says "the biggest challenge for farming is the lack of profitability".

He agrees the past two years have been "tricky", but says Burnham is "prepared to listen".

"Andy Burnham talks about growth in every postcode – that should resonate with us."

A Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said the government was "putting its full weight behind farmers" and "giving them the funding, tools and opportunities they need to succeed".

But the question for Jermy, Burnham and others, is will Labour reap what has already been sown among the farming community?

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