LONDON: Hundreds of farmers, many in tractors, gathered in Wales on Saturday to protest against UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government’s decision to change inheritance tax rules for farms.

Finance minister Rachel Reeves announced last month that farming assets worth more than 1.0 million ($1.26 million) will be liable for 20-percent inheritance tax from next year.

Farmers have warned that family farms may have to be split up, although Starmer says that only a “small number” will be affected.

Farming unions have called the planned changes “disastrous”, and around 200 farmers gathered outside the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno on Saturday, where Starmer was speaking inside.

Starmer told delegates that he would defend the government’s budget “all day long”.

Around 40 tractors parked outside the venue. A larger protest is planned in London on Tuesday.

Demonstrators displayed signs reading “food shortage soon” and “Labour war on countryside”. Protest organisers shouted Digon yw Digon, which means “Enough in Enough” in Welsh, accused the government of not “working or listening to us”.

Farmer Gareth Wyn Jones said farmers would deliver a letter to Starmer, warning him not to “bite the hand that feeds you”.

“They’re destroying an industry that’s already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically,” he told Sky News.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2024