Sir Keir Starmer vows to defend budget decisions ‘all day’ as farmers criticize ‘disrespectful’ PM | Political news Aitrend

Sir Keir Starmer said he would defend decisions made in the Budget “all day long”, amid anger from farmers over changes to inheritance tax.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced this last month in his keynote speech that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1 million will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, instead of the standard 40% rate applied to other land and properties.

This announcement aroused the anger of farmers who claim that this will mean higher food pricesa decline in food production and the need to sell land to pay the tax.

Sir Keir defended the Budget in his first speech as Prime Minister at the Welsh Labor conference in Llandudno, north Wales, where farmers staged a protest in front of tractors.

Sir Keir admitted: “We have made some extremely difficult decisions on tax matters. »

He said: “I will defend myself in the harsh light of budgetary reality. I will defend the difficult decisions that were necessary to stabilize our economy.

“And I will stand up for protecting workers’ pay slips, strengthening the foundations of our economy and investing in the future of Britain and Wales. Finally, turn the page on austerity once and for all.”

He also said the budget allocation for Wales was a “record figure” – some £21 billion for next year – an extra £1.7 billion thanks to the Barnett formula, while welcoming a “pathway to change” with the Labor governments in Wales and Westminster.

And he confirmed a £160million investment zone in Wrexham and Flintshire would come on stream in 2025.

“The Prime Minister should have addressed the demonstrators”

Among the hundreds of farmers protesting was Gareth Wyn Jones, who told Sky News it was “disrespectful” that the Prime Minister did not mention farmers in his speech.

He said: “Many people have come here to express their frustrations. He (Starmer) had the opportunity to address the crowd. Even if he was booed, he should have been man enough to go out and talk to people.”

He said farmers planned to hand Sir Keir a letter which begins “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.

Mr Wyn Jones told Sky News the Government was “destroying” an already struggling industry.

“They are destroying an industry that is already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically. We need government support, not additional obstacles, to be able to produce food to feed the nation.

He said changes to inheritance tax would cause farmers to increase the price of food: “The poorest people in society will not be able to afford to buy good, healthy and nutritious British food, we must therefore put pressure on the government to understand. That’s enough, the farmers can’t take any more of what they’re throwing at us.”

Mr Wyn Jones disputed the Government’s estimate that only 500 agricultural estates in the UK would be affected by the inheritance tax changes.

“Look, a lot of farmers in this country are in their 70s and 80s, they haven’t passed on their farms because that’s the way it’s always been, they always knew there would never be inheritance tax.”

On Friday, Sir Keir responded to farmers’ concerns, saying: “I know some farmers are worried about the inheritance tax rules we introduced two weeks ago.

“What I would say about that is that once you add the £1 million for farmland to the £1 million exempt for your spouse, for most couples owning a farm wanting to pass it on to their children, it takes £3million before anyone will pay any money. a penny of inheritance tax.

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Ministers said the move would not affect small farms and was aimed at targeting wealthy landowners who buy farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax.

But analysis this week said a typical family farm would have to spend 159% of its annual profits paying the new inheritance tax every year for a decade and might have to sell 20% of its land.

The Country and Land Business Association (CLA), which represents owners of land, property and rural businesses in England and Wales, found that a typical 200-acre farm owned by a single person with a profit expected of £27,300 would be subject to inheritance tax of £435,000. Invoice.

The plan states that families can spread the payment of inheritance tax over 10 years, but the CLA estimated that this would require an average farm to allocate 159% of its profits each year for a decade.

To pay for that, successors could be forced to sell 20% of their land, according to the analysis.