British farmers have expressed their anger over Environment Secretary Steve Reed’s choice of footwear for a recent rural outing.
The UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, has angered farming communities after being photographed wearing £420 (nearly $500) rubber boots.
The minister was pictured with former National Farmers’ Union president Minette Batters while wearing Le Chameau wellies, which are described by the manufacturer as exclusive, hand-crafted footwear. The boots feature a “premium leather lining” and a “leather insole” and come in the “iconic green” colour.
It is believed that the minister’s wellies were not purchased by Reed himself, but rather gifted by Lord Waheed Alli, a major Labour donor and one of the directors of Le Chameau. At the time of the donation, the boots cost £270, just below the £300 threshold requiring them to be registered among members’ interests.
The fashion choice has caused an uproar among British farmers, who have been vocal in their criticism of the minister.
“You’ll never see a farmer who wears £400 wellies, because we’re getting them covered in muck every day,” says Aled Thomas, a farmer and Conservative councillor in Pembrokeshire, Wales, told The Telegraph. He added that people “are feeling quite insulted” over the display.
Andrew Court, a farmer from Staffordshire, told the newspaper that if the minister was trying to connect with farmers through his choice of footwear, he had clearly failed to do so.
“They’re absolutely not the kind of wellies a farmer would wear,” he said. “Anything above £100 is not really appropriate for farming, it’s for driving your Chelsea tractor, that sort of thing.”
The wellies scandal comes on top of remarks Reed made earlier this week ahead of budget hearings. Speaking to The Guardian, the minister urged farmers and conservationists to “learn to do more with less,” while blaming the budget difficulties on the fact the UK was apparently “among the most nature-depleted countries in the world.”
While the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) budget itself remained flat, the government unveiled a plan to levy inheritance tax at an effective rate of 20% on the value of business and agricultural assets over £1 million (nearly $1.3 million). Previously, farmlands were exempted from the tax, and the change, expected to enter force from April 2026, has been widely perceived as the end for many family farms.