…Outside the Home Office on Friday afternoon, Julia Quecaño Casimiro led proceedings, explaining through a translator that she and other people on the seasonal worker scheme had been treated “like animals”.

Employment tribunal hearings are due to begin this week to decide their claims for unlawful ­deduction of wages, unfair dismissal, discrimination and harassment against Haygrove…

It employs more than 1,000 ­people to pick fruit and uses the seasonal worker scheme, a visa programme introduced after Brexit when fruit was left rotting in the fields because there was no one to pick it. Haygrove disputes the claims…

McAndrew said there was substantial evidence of “widespread exploitation” of people on the seasonal worker visa. Part of the reason is that growers are under extreme pressure from supermarkets to drive down prices, and seasonal workers are usually employed through third-party agencies…

“A lot of the retailers take the lion’s share, so the workers and the farm are left to compete,” she said. “If inheritance tax goes up, that leaves less value in the farm and a smaller amount of money for ­workers.”…

On Friday, supermarkets ­including Tesco, Lidl and Aldi joined Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco in supporting the farmers’ fight…